Rohana's Golden melodies to rhyme Down Under

Chamikara Weerasinghe

Sri Lankan artistes will perform at Australia's prestigious Sydney Opera House in a grand musical concert to be held next month.

The concert, "The Golden Melodies of Rohana Weerasinghe" will be the biggest musical event in the calendar as the event will make history as the Sri Lanka's first musical concert held at Sydney Opera House with most number of local artistes.

The organisers of the event, Yasiru Multimedia Pvt Ltd., one of the leading multimedia companies based in Sydney, said that they expect the event to be a totally new experience to the oriental music sphere.

The concert will be held on September 3 at Sydney Opera House. It will feature performances by artistes, Nanda Malini, Victor Ratnayake, Sunil Edirisihghe, Edward Jayakodi, Deepika Priyadarshani Peiris, Nelu Adhikari, Dayan Jayatilleke, Charitha Priyadarshani Peiris.

Sydney Youth Orchestra will also pitch in the concert to play with the Sri Lankan orchestra.

The Golden Melodies of Rohana Weerasinghe or Rohana Ransara will be a tribute to Music director and singer Rohana Weerasinghe, Mr. Melody King of Sri Lanka, for his excellent service done to the local music scene in the areas of popular and classical music as well as teledrama and film music.

Rohana will conduct the orchestra at the Sydney concert. The concert will be staged for the second time after that at Robert Blackwood Concert Hall in Melbourne on September 10.

The artiste is currently celebrating his 35 years in the field and has this to say about his forthcoming appearance at the Sydney Opera House:

"To be performing at Sydney Opera House means big time for any artiste in the world. It is a golden opportunity. It's a dream come true for a Sri Lankan artiste."

"We (the members of the local orchestra, the singers, the film artistes, and Rohana) will fly to Australia on August 28. We will be rehearsing for the show for six days there," he said.

Rohana said he had already sent Western notation sheets of his songs to the Sydney Youth Orchestra for practice. There will be fifteen of Australian instrumentalists playing with our orchestra at the concert," he said.

If one rightly speaks about Rohana'a music he has contributed immensely to introduce new generation artistes to the field with his tremendous melody arrangements. There is hardly any popular singer in the Sri Lankan Music scene who has not sung a melody composed by Rohana.

Rohana is a versatile artiste that he is able to compose a good kapirinna melody for a song with a popular touch inasmuch as he is able to arrange a serious mood piece based on an Indian Rag for another song upon requirement.

As Prof. Sunil Ariyaratna (lyricist) described Rohana: "He is a creative man and a fountain of melodies who has successfully surpassed his contemporaries in the music field."

As pointed out by Saman Chandranath Weerasinghe, Rohana is a man who will do justice to a song, and he is a key figure who is playing a silent but a serious role for the promotion and development of film music in Sri Lanka.

Sarath rocks the house

Sarath Fernando delighted a fully packed house at the Lumbini Theatre with his singing and guitar playing at his concert which was held on Sunday.

Sarath rocked the house with reggae singles of Bob Marley. He sang, Three Little Birds, Roots Rock Reggae, Zion Train, and Lively Up Yourself, with his fabulous easy going free style. Sureni de Mel and Dinu joined him adding flavour to the concert with their voices. In fact, the two did a fabulous job.

It was one hell of a performance that there was not a single member in the audience who did not join with Sarath's music. There was yelling, shouting and applauding, but everything was in union with what was going on stage.

Sarath played songs by his father (late legendary Baila singer M. S. Fernando). Sarath performed two of his own rock songs at the concert. The two singles with Sinhala lyrics, one a slow rock and the other a hard rock single.

The hard rock single, titled "Sanda Mandalata in 3,000 A.D." ("Into the Moon in 3,000 A.D") was much commended by the audience.

The song has psychedelic lyrics about a couple who live in a different galaxy in the year 3000, a world where everything is artificial even the flowers.

The slow rock song is about a village boy who had gone astray after coming to Colombo on his holiday, "Niwaduwata Kolamba Awe Mam."

The show also had acoustic guitar recitals. Sarath's son Swadesh Ranga Fernando also assisted his father's performance with the guitar. - Chamikara.

‘X’Plosive music at BMICH

Five-star explosion, organised by Old Thomians’ Swimming Club and DK promotions, was held on Sunday (13) at the BMICH with a full packed house.

The show got off the ground with the evergreen Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard songs performed by Ishan Bahar and his son, Ricky Bahar.

Then came Shenelle who surprised the audience with her wonderful voice with a special touch, she drew rounds of applause for her charismatic presence on stage.

Rajitha Rupasinghe, approached the stage from the audience singing, moving and fascinating everyone with his charming movements, walking all the way down the aisle to get on stage. It was a power packed presentation with hits of Tom Jones, Louis Armstrong, Neil Diamond and Credence Clearwater Revival.

There were Ronnie and Mariazelle, who gave individual and joined performances, drew rounds of applause from a happy and toe-tapping audience.

Rukshan Perera, back from us gave everyone a polished miscellany of hits that ranged from George Benson to Clarence Wijewardena. The climax of the ‘5-Star ‘X’Plosion’ was the fabulous Gypsies with Sunil in the spotlight.

This was a new look follow on to their earlier ‘I don’t know why’ act which kept everyone enthraled with entertainment, laughter, rhythm and beat.

All these ingredients were tempered with the professional excellence of the gifted, ever so natural, friendly and effervescent Compere, Vijaya Corea, who linked each act with superb manner and style.

All in all, ‘5-Star X’Plosion’ was an unforgettable entertainer of rare splendour put together as a fund raiser.