Foundation for Filipino Artists, Inc.

The Mid Atlantic Foundation for Asian Artists, Inc.

Pierre le Saint Events NYC

Spoliarium: Juan Luna is three-act neo-romantic opera which promises to regale the audience with different musical glimpse. 

Conceived by Fides Cuyugan-Asensio, one the Philippines foremost opera singers and set to music by Ryan Cayabyab, the Spoliarium brings us back to Paris  on the eve of the Philippine Revolution:  an era when the names like the Jose Rizal, the Pardo de Tavera, Hidalgo and the Luna brothers, and others of the propaganda movement did their best for nationhood and independence.

Juan Luna, a renowned Filipino world class painter brought honors for

his country for his acclaimed international masterpieces, won the gold

medal in the 1884 Madrid Exposition for his painting, the Spoliarium.

Against this backdrop, life became art with the tragic drama of Luna’s

private life.  Immensely in love with his wife, his rampaging emotions

and jealousy turned to rage, and lead him to kill his mother in law,

and mortally wounded his wife, who eventually succumbed to death.

Libretto by Fides-Cuyugan Asensio