For the Love of Opera

Andrew Fernando has yet to attain the fame and stature of Pavarotti or Domingo in the world of opera. But with the roles he has landed so far, this Filipino artist has definitely arrived.

By Anissa Vicente-Rivera

Domingo. Pavarotti. Fernando.

Opera singer Andrew Fernando, 29, may not yet have achieved the name recognition of Placido and Luciano, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t on the right track.

As a child, Fernando remembers being surrounded by classmates who sang pop songs. “I noticed I sang differently than the other kids and I didn’t know why,” he said. “I was singing operatically before I even realized there was opera. I was the strange one because of my singing.”

Well, the strange one has arrived. Fernando, a resident of Glendora, Calif., plays the roles of the Innkeeper and Sergent in the Opera Pacific production of “Manon Lescaut” in Costa Mesa. The Puccini opera about a young woman torn between love and riches runs through February 27.

“Either you like opera or you don’t like it that much,” Fernando said. “You cannot hate opera. It’s a collaboration of all arts, singing, instruments, drama, carpentry, sounds and lighting.”

For Fernando, opera called early. He was a nine-year-old in the Philippines who tried out for the lead role in the one-act opera “Amahi and the Night Visitors.” He got it.
“I had been singing since kindergarten and knew I could sing,” he said. “Amahi was great. Then I hit this thing called puberty and all the music was either too high or too low.”

Fernando thought he just had “a moment of talent,” and concentrated instead on school. He graduated from high school and tried majoring in chemistry, economics and computer science, attending Far Eastern University, Letran and the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila in the Philippines.

“I was trying to please my parents,”he said. “They never stopped me from performing but they also wanted me to do something else.”

At 17, Fernando won the national finals at the National Music Competition for Young Artists sponsored by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The win prompted his parents to agree to a musical career. Fernando won a scholarship to the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music, the Philippines’ oldest university. He earned a bachelor’s degree in voice before getting his big break in 1992, singing the baritone lead in a Tagalog version of Puccini’s “La Boheme.” The production, penned by the late national artist for theater Rolando Tinio, was a big beginning for Fernando.

“Sabi ko, sige, (I said, okay) ” he said. “I was happy and nervous because here I was just out of college and here was this big role. After that, I’ve never had a quiet life.”
He was also the featured soloist in numerous Philippine productions, performing in China and Guam. A highlight included a role as Bonze, the uncle who curses Madame Butterfly for changing her religion, in a San Francisco Opera and Philippine production of the tragic play. “Madame Butterfly was being played by Yoko Watanabe and I thought, ‘Kahit taga-dala lang ako ng sushi, OK lang sa akin’ (Even if I were just the guy who delivered sushi to the set, it was okay with me),”

Phonetically-trained in French, Italian and German, he has performed in productions of “The Marriage of Figaro” and “La Traviata” and appeared in Paco Park Presents....concerts and television, singing with Ryan Cayabyab, Fides Cuyugan and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.
He finished post-graduate studies in opera at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts before coming to the U.S. in 1992. Again, Fernando was on full scholarship.

The move from heady success in the Philippines to virtual obscurity in America was not easy. “But every time I thought about starting a career in the U.S., I had peace in my heart, “Fernando said.

As a young artist-in-residence with Opera Pacific, he has found a measure of peace in his craft. “If you’re a performance artist, one way or another you have touched a life,” he said. “I believe that.”

Fernando hopes to sing with different companies in the U.S. and Europe. Meanwhile, he stays in touch with his family in the Philippines and is active with Faith Community Church in West Covina, Calif.

“My sweetest success is being here and being able to sing,” Fernando said. “That’s my foundation. I know now this is my life, this is my home and God’s plans for me are great.”