Musical featuring Wolfgang songs to finally run at Arete this November

“Si Faust,” the sung-through musical in Filipino featuring the songs of Wolfgang will be finally staged at Arete beginning mid-November this year, director and co-writer Nelsito Gomez confirmed to GMA News Online.

“Yes, Basti (Artadi) and I are thankful and excited because after four years, here we are. ‘Si Faust’ is the title, which means it’s in Filipino,” Gomez said.

Basti Artadi, vocalist and main composer of Wolfgang, posted earlier on his social media platforms about the musical, posting a photo of himself wearing a black Wolfgang shirt and holding a copy of the libretto, with the title that read “Si Faust, after Goethe, by Wolfgang.”

“So many years, so many attempts, so many times, I almost I quit this ultimate dream of mine to have the bands’ music as part of a musical," Basti began.

"Today I spent the afternoon with a young enthusiastic cast and crew to start the first steps toward getting this thing from dream to reality and I’m so happy things turned out the way they did. Because after what I saw today I don’t think this production could be in better hands. Thank you, God, and all the folks down here for making this happen!! #SiFaust @areteateneo is happening in November see you there!”

Artadi tells GMA News Online that they own the copyright of their songs. “Yes, natuloy, sa wakas. [And] yes, we own the publishing [rights],” Artadi said.

According to Gomez, the story “is basically Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s ‘Faust,’ told through the Wolfgang catalog.”

Goethe’s original story is about Dr. Faust, an extremely lonely, old and bored intellectual who sells his soul to the devil, Mephistopheles, for a life full of excitement based on earthly pleasures. The Devil makes Dr. Faust young again until he meets Gretchen, an innocent beautiful woman who he falls in love with.

But the deal has a caveat: “If Faust ever finds a moment of true, lasting satisfaction and wishes it to stay, his soul will belong to Mephistopheles in hell.”

“Faust” is a two-part stage play written in the 19th century and is considered Germany’s most enduring, if not, the greatest contribution to world literature.

“We’re mainly using Part 1 of Goethe’s Faust as our spine. There is a Part 2. But very sprawling and unwieldy that we do not dare tackle that,” Gomez said.

He shared the musical uses 21 songs from Wolfgang’s discography but refuses to give other details. 

Wolfgang broke into the music scene with their self-titled debut album in 1995 and followed it up with “Semenelin” in 1996. They released four more albums after before putting out the EP “Ang Bagong Dugo Sa Lumang Ugat – Unang Kabanata” in 2012.

Despite having “Unang Kabanata” in the title, the band took a long hiatus in making another album and the “Second Kabanata” never came into existence.

Creative collaboration

While Gomez and Artadi did their best to involve songs from almost all the Wolfgang albums, “our priority is the music that can best move our narrative forward," Gomez said.

"But fans need not worry, the hits will definitely be in the show,” he added saying “Kabaitan Bautista, our musical arranger and musical director, is doing excellent things with the Wolfgang canon.”

Bautista is senior member and artist-teacher at the Philippine Educational Theate Association and is one of the facilitators at PETA’s summer workshops. He also teaches at the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music, where he graduated, majoring in composition. Among his day jobs are as composer, film scorer and sound designer.

Gomez tells GMA News Online there are 10 cast members, composed of five principal actors and five
for the ensemble.

"It was in 2020 when Basti told me that he was developing the Wolfgang musical for many years. I wasn’t involved then. I was just an excited fan at that point. Then around mid-year of 2021, when the pandemic was in full effect, I rang him up to inquire about the project. I had a lot of time on my hands, and I wanted to get involved in creating more original work," Gomez said.

“He updated me on the progress and, very kindly, decided to include me in the development process. Then followed several months of back-and-forth emails, calls, and WhatsApp voice notes,” he added.

From hunch to ‘Faust’

“We tried many ideas until we landed on ‘Faust’. It came as a hunch, actually. As I was studying the entire catalog of Wolfgang I noticed a pattern, a through-line in their music: One man fighting the evils of his time, wanting to achieve so much—attain success, aid people, accomplish good —that he decides to ‘sell his soul’ or compromise his morals to gain it. Thus, becoming the very ‘demon’ or the evil he was fighting so hard against. A Faustian tale if there ever was one,” Gomez said.

“We took off from that hunch and now, four years later, we’re finally going to test it out in front of an audience,” he added.

Basti first shared to GMA News Online about the then- untitled Wolfgang musical in 2022, when he made his return to theater after a long hiatus, acting in Dustin Celestino’s “Fermata,” a one-act-play in Filipino directed by Guelan Luarca for the annual Virgin Labfest at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Back then, Artadi played a former musician turned jazz bar owner. He is a victim of sexual abuse and now trying to cope with his troubled past.

The idea to stage a Wolfgang musical started way back in the mid-1990s, when the band was among the rising rock acts in the alternative music scene. “Back in 1993, I wrote an album for Wolfgang titled ‘Wurm’ and it was inspired by ‘Tommy’ the rock opera with the songs by The Who. But rock musical wasn’t in fashion then. Now, with all the jukebox musicals, it has become like a trend,” Artadi told us. “Wurm” has three of Wolfgang’s major hits, "Sanctified," "A Matter of Time," and “Alone.”

It’s been a good year for Artadi. In January this year, he and the founding members of Wolfgang, composed of lead guitarist Manuel Legarda, original drummer now US-based Wolf Gemora, and the heirs of the late bassist Mon Legaspi, reclaimed ownership to their “prodigal” debut album with the release of “Wolfgang 30,” the band’s re-recorded, remastered, self-titled debut album to mark their 30th anniversary.

“Si Faust” is a fitting follow-up as it celebrates their enduring legacy on the live stage through musical theater.

Gomez clarified this musical is entirely a production mounted by the Areté, the creative and innovation hub of Ateneo. 

“Mounting any show—especially experimental work like this—is always a challenge. But the bold and courageous Arete has decided to take on that challenge,” he added. Inquiries on tickets and other details about the show will be announced in, well, as the Wolfgang song goes, a matter of time. Follow Arete’s socials.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Basti Artadi (@bastiartadi73)

— LA, GMA Integrated News