Requiem

A musical tale about two impoverished sisters' anguish over whether or not to sell the final masterpiece of their recluse father days before the second world war, in Manila.

The once illustrious Lopez-Aranda family has faded. Celia, once the darling of Philippine opera, and Gaspar, a distinguished ex-congressman, lacked the shrewdness to maintain their once elegant status. Saddled with a failed marriage, a vanishing career and mounting debt, Celia sold her share of their house to Gaspar, now bedridden. She managed to stay for free in exchange for being Gaspar’s caregiver. Gaspar loves listening to Celia’s arias. This idyllic arrangement is shattered when he slips into a coma. His daughter, Raquel, comes home from the US, determined to sell the house to salvage her own economic woes abroad. This signals Celia’s impending homelessness. With only a few heirlooms to sell, she is at her wits’ end. A fervent believer of the Sto. Nino, she hopes for a miracle. She dresses up her grandson, Antony, in Sto. Nino robes to prepare him for the coming fiesta.

Celine, a grieving widow returns to her estranged husband’s family’s island estate to scatter his ashes and claim her inheritance. Paeng and Celine de Miranda, both doctors, seemed to be the perfect couple, beloved by the islanders who were beneficiaries of their many medical missions. But the marriage fell apart, marked by her being unable to bear children and rumors of his infidelities. The once idyllic island is now mired in poverty, squalor, and decadence. It is now up for sale to Korean investors.