Nora Aunor holds audience
in the palm of her hand
Posted: 11:14 PM (Manila Time) | May 23, 2003
By Nestor U. Torre
Inquirer News Service
Observers
WHEN we took our seats at the Araneta Coliseum last Saturday, 30 minutes before Nora Aunor's "Gold" concert was about to start, we were dismayed to see that the Big Dome wasn't even half-full. Our favorite Superstar deserved a much better turnout on her 50th birthday celebration!
Was her time really over, as some industry observers have dourly observed? No, she was too good and unique not to be given an umpteenth time to recover lost ground, and make herself relevant anew to today's entertainment scene.
Happily, as the show closed in on its 8 p.m. starting time, Nora's fans, both old and new, started arriving in droves. And, when the concert finally started, the coliseum was full.
It was important to us that Nora be given a superstar-sized reception on this latest landmark in her personal and professional life, because she has contributed so much to local entertainment:
She broke the tisoy monopoly on big-screen stardom, gave masa viewers a movie luminary they could completely identify with and derive inspiration from, and helped raise the standard for film acting in this country.
Surely we had to remember, and express our gratitude for those bounties. Yes, Nora has sometimes taken her phenomenal success for granted, and she's allowed her special gifts to be compromised by unprofessionalism and vices. But, all told, her achievements are greater than her flaws and excesses, so her turning 50 should be cause for celebration, not fault-finding.
We held these thought in check when Nora's show started, with Kuya Germs looking back at her childhood in Iriga and her early start in show biz, courtesy of the "Tawag ng Tanghalan" national singing contest.
Germs' personal notes were welcome, but he went on too long, so we were impatient to get the pasakalye over with, and for Nora to prove to everyone that she still had what it took to excite and inspire a coliseum full of her old and new devotees.
Another mental aside: Nora's ability to do this was being doubted by nay-sayers who observed that, quite often, she was no longer in good voice, and she looked old and enervated, to boot. But we refused to entertain such quibbles for long. She was the country's first Superstar, this was her big night, and she had to make it one of the most memorable highlights of her career!
First notes
Well, that's exactly what she did. From the time she appeared onstage and sang the first notes of her demanding opening number, to her finale and encores more than two hours later, Nora held her audience in the palm of her hand.
Unlike her last big show at the coliseum, she was in good voice throughout her "Gold" concert. Listeners thrilled to the unique texture of her famous singing voice, now lower in pitch than it was at her prime, but otherwise as expressive and captivating as it has ever been.
Indeed, it was even more expressive, now that she was more mature, experienced and judicious, and knew that good singers don't have to scream to hold their audience in thrall. Younger divas could learn important lessons from Nora in this regard, and spare their listeners' eardrums and sensibilities from more punishment.
Best of all, Nora truly enjoyed herself throughout her concert. She must have deeply appreciated her fans' impressive show of force at this important event in her career, and gratefully gave them, not just a memorable musical evening, but everything else she could.
Completely at home on the coliseum's stage, she joked with the crowd, basked in its love, expressed her affection and gratitude in turn, and had herself a great time-despite the fact that she had to work so hard during the long concert, exiting only for a few minutes to change outfits, while her guest singers held center stage.
Although we've resolutely maintained that Nora isn't the tired has-been that some observers say she is, we were frankly surprised at the amount of work that she did on her concert last Saturday.
She sang, she danced, she had to do so many spiels, she kept the whole show well-paced and eventful -- very few entertainers, of whatever age, could have done as well. No wonder, the avid coliseum crowd kept on cheering her to high heavens-as the country's once and future Superstar.
