Fides Belza Cuyugan is born on August 1, 1931, in
Lucena, Philippines. She is the daughter of Gervasio Santos Cuyugan and Jacinta Belza. During the war she directed, wrote, performed, and designed short musicals and plays. She studied at the
Philippine Women's University and finished two courses - a Bachelor of Arts in English, specializing in Drama in 1950 and a Bachelor of Music, Major in voice and minor in piano in 1951. Her graduation recital in 1951 was well-received. It appeared in the front page of
The Manila Times declaring "A star is born". More significantly, she was praised by the grand dame
Jovita Fuentes (who was in the audience), who proclaimed that the young soprano would "inherit my mantle someday." After graduating she received a scholarship from the
Curtis Institute of Music in
Pennsylvania where she graduated in 1955 with an Artist's Diploma, major in voice with special studies in stage movement and
eurhythmics. She married Manuel D. Asensio, Jr. in 1954 and after graduating from Curtis Institute she returned to Manila. Since 1955, she has become one of the leading performers and producers of opera in the country. She made her operatic debut in 1955 singing as Adele in
Strauss'
Die Fledermaus. She also performed in many world premiere performances of Filipino operas, like in Rosendo Santos'
Mapulang Bituin, Eliseo Pajaro's
Binhi ng Kalayaan,
Kasilag's
Dularawan, and most notably as Sisa in
Felipe de Leon's
Noli me Tangere in 1957. She has also sung lead roles in
Menotti's
The Telephone,
Donizetti's
Lucia di Lammermoor, Mozart's
Die Entführung aus dem Serail,
Verdi's
La Traviata,
Britten's
Turn of the Screw, and
Debussy's
''L'Enfant Prodigue'' and many more. She also directed productions of several Filipino and Western operas. In 1969-1974 she appeared as one of the hosts in the TV show
Sunday Sweet Sunday and in 1989-2002 in the TV show
A Little Night of Music. She also appeared in four films: in
Oro Plata Mata (1982),
Niño (2011),
Aparisyon (2012), and in
Mana (2014). In 1986, Fides Asensio formed the
Music Theater Foundation of the Philippines (MTFP), a non-profit organization dedicated to promote, stage, and give scholarships to young classical performers. In 1988, she was appointed Chairman of Voice and Music Theater Department at the U.P. College of Music, a position she held until she retired in 1997. After her retirement, she was granted the title of Professor Emeritus by the U.P. Board of Regents. She is the artistic director of the Opera Guild of the Philippines and the president of the MTFP since 1987. == Honors and awards ==