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| Thursday, 2 December 2004 |
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The Maestro celebrates 77 with fanfare Sri Lanka's golden voice Padmashri Pandith W. D. Amaradeva is due to be presented in a memorable musical extravaganza by the Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association at the BMICH on the 5th of December at 7.00 pm. by Prasad Abu Bakr
His career spans over 60 years of dedication to music. Learning, teaching and achieving while scaling great heights in his singing career in the meantime has been a fulltime occupation with Pandith Amaradeva, doing all this and not wavering away from a style of singing that he set for himself right from the beginning of his career is an applaudable achievement by itself. Set to a string of lyrics by some of the country's all time greats such as Mahagama Sekara, Madawala S. Ratnayake, Shri Chandraratne Manawasinghe and also by many of the best contemporary song writers as Arisen Ahubudu, Dharmasiri Gamage, Sunil Ariyaratne and many others he has sung to the music set, not only to his own compositions but also to the scores of dynamic composer of music Premasiri Khemadasa. As a musician and singer Pundith Amaradeva avoided his work from being isolated to one sphere in the performing arts. He has made innumerable contributions to theatre which brought forward a line-up of stage productions based on musical themes like Nari Bena, Muhudu Puththu, Karadiya, Naladamayanthi that were ballet productions by the Chitrasena and Vajira Dance Academy. As for theatre Pabavathi, Vessantara, Lomahansa and Bavakadaturawa, were stage plays created by Professor Sarachchandra. In films he excelled in his many background scores for many leading classics. His approach right from the beginning of his career singled him out as special and more, as an ideologist with his country at heart. 'One must be able to look around and learn from others but not be their slaves. We must derive examples from other sources but what we create ultimately must have a stamp of our own', said the maestro at a press conference held to announce the event planned to celebrate his 77th birthday. 'I am still exploring and learning myself' said the exponent of music and song in such humble terms making one realise that he is the recipient of many fine and prestigious awards and accolades bestowed upon him from around the world. His deep knowledge of the subject, of which he claims he is only yet a student, has made him a true Pundit of it and made him achieve goals that only a fierce dedication to any cause can bring results of that nature. A son of humble beginnings with a father who was a carpenter and a simple housewife as his mother Amaradeva's first violin came from his father's carpentry workshop handmade by the man. Since that encouraging gesture it has been a one way road (and a Highway at that) for Amaradeva's musical career. The recipient of a Bachelors Degree of Music in Vocal and Instrumental (Violin) from Bathkanda Institute of Music, Lucknow, India. Amaradeva has held many positions in important institutes where he was able to serve the field of music in many ways. Head of Orchestra at the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation in 1959 he also served as the Principal of the State College of Music (now known as the Institute of Aesthetic Studies, University of Kelaniya). Visiting Lecturer of Music, University of Sri Jayawardenapura and later of the University of Peradeniya as well. 'Chirang Jayathu Amaradeva' the musical tribute to his fans on his 77th Birthday at the BMICH on Sunday the 5th of December 2004 will feature songs and violin recitals from the singer's musical career spanning over a half a century which will be spread over a two-hour period. The presentation is designed as a solo performance with his daughter and daughter-in-law joining him in duets along with students of Kalabhumi forming the chorus line. The show has Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation as its electronic media sponsor while the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited is the print media sponsor. Another side of Bob Dylan He wanted to be called Robert Allyn, even though it made him sound like a second-hand car dealer. His inspiration was a 210 lb wrestler called Gorgeous George; his auotmatic jukebox choice was an anthem by Judy Garland; and sometimes, when making records, he was pleased to sound like Barry White.
After four decades, the music industry's biggest secret is out: Bob Dylan is not cool. In fact, the "Holden Caulfield of Hibbing, Minnesota" - who invented the confessional pop song, the off-key "sand and glue" rock vocal and the stream-of-consciousness lyric - was bordering on the un-hip. He even admits to owning a World's Greatest Grandpa bumper sticker. In the nervously awaited Chronicles: Volume One, published this week, Dylan gives a frank insight into his inspirations during the early stages of his career and explains why he later rejected the counterculture he helped to invent. "Whatever the counterculture was, I'd seen enough of it," he writes. "I was sick of the way my lyrics had been extrapolated, their meanings subverted into polemics, and that I had been anointed as the Big Bubba of Rebellion... the Duke of Disobedience." As a last resort, Dylan, 63, considered giving up music and going into business. Typically, it was not a conventional career that tempted the great rock bard: he wanted to open a wooden leg factory. The book's publication comes after Dylan, real name Robert Allen Zimmerman, was once again passed over for the Nobel Prize for Literature. His nomination has prompted debate over whether song lyrics count as works of literature. Chronicles may help Dylan's cause. It has startled some American critics, largely because it avoids the druggy rock-star pretension of Dylan's previous literary effort Tarantula, scrawled during the hallucinatory late 1960s. "As the sphinx holds forth with what is, to put it mildly, atypical frankness, he admits to remarkably unhip tastes and unlikely points of reference," Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a list of the most unlikely statements by Dylan in Chronicles, including, "polka dances always got my blood pumping" and "What I was fantasising about was a nine-to-five existence, a house on a tree-lined block with a white picket fence, pink roses in the back yard". Although Chronicles does not have a traditional linear structure, it is separated into clear accounts of three periods of Dylan's life: his days as a folk musician in Greenwich Village; his paranoid late-1970s phase (when he describes his fans as "scarecrows"); and the 1987 recording of the acclaimed Oh Mercy. "I don't think Barry White could have done it any better'" he said after the recording. Fans also get glimpses of the young, rather odd Dylan, who read biographies of great war leaders and fantasised about enrolling in the West Point military academy. "I'd always pictured myself dying in some heroic battle rather than in bed," he writes. "I asked my father how to get into West Point and he seemed shocked, said that my name didn't begin with a 'De' or a 'Von' and that you need connections and proper credentials to get in there." Alas, music beckoned. Dylan knew he had made the right choice when he played at the National Guard Armory in Hibbing during a visit by the star wrestler Gorgeous George. The wrestler looked at Dylan as he played and mouthed the phrase: "You are making it come alive." Dylan writes: "Whether he said it or not, it was all the recognition and encouragement I would need for years to come." Later, Dylan decided to drop the "Zimmerman". "What I was going to do as soon as I left home was just call myself Robert Allen. It sounded like the name of a Scottish king and I liked it," he writes. Then, after reading about the West Coast saxophone player David Allyn, he decided to alter his new name to Robert Allyn. A poetry book by Dylan Thomas made him think again, but "Bobby Dylan sounded too skittish to me and besides, there already was a Bobby Darin, a Bobby Vee, a Bobby Neely and a lot other Bobbys". He settled on Bob Dylan. As if this is not proof enough of Dylan's lack of cool, he writes that his favourite song is Moon River, before wondering why he never joined Peter, Paul and Mary. By calling his book Volume One, Dylan implicitly promises more. But it may be a long wait. as he said: "Lest we forget, while you're writing, you're not living. What do they call it? Splendid isolation? I don't find it that splendid." Courtesy the London Times Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet; and their ardour by Gwen Heart
Two colossal tragedies, one weighted down by royal obligations and the other with rage emitting from the Houses of Capulets and Montagues. One used an asp to end the scenario while the other, a portion of poison. Shakespeare treats both plays with passion and virtue that help dramatise both stories from love to death. In Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare moves the story into action from the very beginning. There is no anti-climax because the climax had preceded even before the story starts to unfold. There is also love in the air as incident by incident, the plot takes shape; Cleopatra - 'If it be love indeed, tell me how much, Antony - There's beggery in the love that can be reckon'd. Cleo - I will set a bourn how far to be beloved Antony - Then must thou need find out new heaven new earth' ACT. 1. Scene.1. There are far too many characters in this play and one wonder why Shakespeare chose it that way when the central plot revolved mainly around two characters. As there is nothing significant leading to the real situation, Philo in his first oration confides to Demetrius of Antony's love for the queen of Egypt. 'Nay, but the dotage of our General's Overflows the Measure; thou whose goodly eyes... And is become bellows and fans.' To cool a gipsy's lust. ACT.1. scene 1 When Antony is motivated in repentance as news is brought from Rome that Fulvia is dead, Cleopatra chides the messenger, 'These strong Egyptian fetters must I break to lose myself in dotage'. And as Antony leaves for Rome, Cleopatra is moved into tenderness. She is eager to know about his whereabouts and commands her attendant, Alexas to find him and when he does, Antony's speech remains is his mind. Alexaz brings an Orient pearl from Antony to Clepatra: Alexas 'Last thing he did, dear Queen, He kissed the last of many doubled kissess, The Orient pearl, His speech sticks in my heart. Cleopatra - Mine ear must pluck it thence' Alexas - 'Good friend' quote he, 'Say from the first Roman to great Egypt send, This treasure of an oyster, at whose foot, to send the pretty present I will place. Her oppulent throne with kingdom, all the East'. ACT. 1. Scene V. Upon his elaboration of the Kingdom of the East, Charmain quips on behalf of the valiant Caesar is virtue and Cleopatra being intimidated. threatens her. Sometimes, at irrevelent moments Shakespeare places dialogues on lips of his characters. Obviously, to bind one to another for some purpose and later shift them into place and take us by surprise. To those who have studied and are smitten by his greatness Shakespeare remain the enigma, a total dictator of the language he created for English literature. Shakespeare's leanings on Plutarch's Life of Antony shows how heavily he was inspired but it remains something of a paradox. In reality, he followed the prose of North upon a golden vision of memories. 'The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Burn'd on the water; the poop was of beaten gold.' It is evident that North's eloquence is at its height wherever the Bard opted to place it and he used Antony and Cleopatra as a medium towards it. We see the 'Rare Egyptian breaking down with distress the moment a messenger from Rome brings the news that Antony has married Octavia. Upsurged by this news, Caesar is quick to state with no less a sneer, 'Cleopatra hath nodded him to her.' Together Antony and Cleopatra decide to fight at sea. Upon this incident, Shakespeare elaborates in some of his much-quoted dialogue, from this play. He applies many familiar words like 'girl' and 'nightingale' which eventually leads to a prelude of denunction 'this foul Egyptian.' However, Antony stands on top of the world and declares 'We'd fight this too'. In an anticlimax, he savagely turns to Cleopatra and utters 'Betray'd I am'. Cleopatra's entreaty is in vain as Antony resolves, 'the witch shall die.' The drama reach high tension when Cleopatra despatch Merdian to inform that she has slain herself. Antony in remorse, prepares for death but not without the agonising heaves and sobs. They are simple words but pierces deep into heart:- 'Unarm Eros, the long day's task is done. And we must sleep.' ACT. IV, Scene XIV. Antony like Romeo is shaken by emotion. He smells death and speaks brokenly. His beloved Eros refuse to kill him and rather than slay his master, kills himself. The oration he makes as death stares in his face, Shakespeare reaches lightening rescendo and moots dialogue so deep and eloquent that no there writer than the Bard would have dared. Antony is still alive as the Bard was in want of words to put upon his lips:- Eros - 'Why, there then, thus I go escape the sorrow of Antony's death Antony - 'Thrice nobler than myself. Thou teaches me, O valiant Eros;What I should, and thou could'st not, my Queen and Empress Haveby their brave instructions got upon me. A nobeless in record; but I will be a bridegroom in death'... ACT. V. Scene XIV And Antony comes to take farewell from his love and in the stillness of death, whispers to Cleopatra, 'I am dying Egypt, dying; only. I have importune death awhile, until ofmany kisses This poor last I lay upon thee' The scene at the vault of Romeo and Juliet comes alive here as Antony dies in the arms of Cleopatra and later she commits suicide, stung by an asp she had summond her maids to bring into her chamber. Iras precede her and Charmaine gasps her last breath long enough to tell a soldier of Cleopatra's death:- 'It is well done, and fitting for a princess, Descended of so many royal kings' ACT. V. Scene 11 Himidiriya by Chamara A solo exhibition of Paintings by a self motivated young artist from the South titled "Himidiriya" (Twilight) will take place at the Matara Uyanwatta Sports Ground Pavillion on December 3, 4 and 5.
Chamara marvelled his elders by his drawings and paintings on walls during his primary school days in Olcott College, Weragampita, Matara and later as a secondary school student of St. Thomas' College, Matara, where he passed the Advanced Level with Distinctions in the three subjects, Geography, Sinhala and Art.
Chamara, on this occasion of his first solo Arts Exhibition mentions with pride his battalion of unknown soldiers, who campaigned relentlessly to promote his arlistic cause. Carols at St. Peter's Church Fort It's in the heart of the city of Colombo, at St. Peter's Church Fort, that the season of Christmas will be ushered in, through a festival of Carols this Sunday at 6.00 p.m. with the Lylie Godridge Singers in attendance. This historic church has its origin's during the Dutch period, when the premises served as the governor's residence, and was the venue for all Council meetings. It was not retained as the governor's seat during the British period, but provided a suitable place wherein social gatherings could be held. It was not until 1804 that the premises were used as a place of prayer and worship, when it was converted to a garrison church. In April 1821, a visitation and confirmation was held by Bishop Middleton of Calcutta, and on May 22nd of that same year, the Church was consecrated for divine service. Colombo, being a commercial hub, is a hive of activity. The usual working day downtown is characterized by endless streams of noisy traffic, the calls of street vendors, and crowds of people rushing to and from their work. Amid the hustle and bustle of the busy city streets, it is a trying task to find a quiet niche, to collect one's thoughts and bearings. despite this difficulty, there is such a place in Colombo, that requires only a short detour. Making your way passed the Grand Oriental Hotel, along the port, you will come upon the Church of St. Peter's, Fort. Entering through the columned porch and through the main doorway, the visitor is immediately enveloped in the silent, cool environs of this sanctuary. Whether it be for prayer and meditation or for a short respite from work or shopping, St. Peter's stands as a haven of peace and tranquillity. St. Peter's welcomes all to experience the peace and hope it offers, united as one family, all equal, all friends, all free. It is also spoken of as the 'Sea Farers' Church through its Mission to Seamen. |
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The upcoming young artist is chamara Wijesinghe of Dunwatta. Weraduwa,
Matara, an old boy of St. Thomas' College, Matara who showed his prowess
in paintings from early childhood.
Himidiriya" is his debut in Arts exhibition the credit for which
he attributes to his uncle Piyasiri Jayatilakes an Arts director,
Ratnasiri Sumanaweera the Principal of St. Thomas College, Matara and his
arts teachers N. V. Samaraweera and S. A. Upali, who pioneered his pursuit
of the art of paintings.
