One of the greatest Filipino vocal talents, National Artist for Music Jovita Fuentes was also the first Filipino international star in the world of opera.
Born on February 15, 1895 to Canuto and Dolores Flores in Capiz (now Roxas City), and Jovita was exposed to music at age five, when she learned to sing habaneras and danzas. She learned to play the piano with the help of the town organist, after which she moved to Manila to study at the Colegio de Santa Isabel. During her school vacations, she organized the showing of sarswelas and operettas with friends and neighbors.
The somber minor key and brooding Hiligaynon lyrics make this traditional song an intensely romantic, sighing piece. Its lyrics speak of the despair of one who has been abandoned by the beloved. The song was performed in public by National Artist Jovita Fuentes in 1919 at a concert sponsored by Asociacion Musical de Filipinas. She recorded the song for Odeon Records of Germany in 1928.
Based on Henry Murger's novel Scenes de la vie de Bohème, the opera follows a love story between a poet named Rodolfo and Mimi, a seamstress, as they are forced to face the challenges of Mimi's declining health and the realities of living in Paris' Latin Quarter during the 1830s.