Don’t miss a night at the opera
The promise is alluring – a night to remember with selections from 13 operas performed concert-style.
This is what the Menaka Singers’ Opera Ensemble promises during ‘A Grand Night for Singing — at the Opera’ on September 7 to raise funds for ‘Samata Sarana’, an approved charity in Colombo 15.
Rehearsals in progress: The soloists get into their roles
Seven soloists will perform extracts from pieces such as Handel’s Ariodante, Gounod’s Faust, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Verdi’s Il Trovatore and Bizet’s Carmen.The soloists are sopranos Trudy Herft, Dhanushi Wijeyakulasuriya and Anagi Perera, mezzo sopranos Rachel Haliday and Joanne Aloysius, baritone Gehan Cooray and tenor Jaliya Senanayake.
Coming from diverse professions, they meet on opera’s common ground. Trudy, actress, singer, director and teacher is currently completing the diploma of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM-UK) and Dhanushi is a third-year special degree student at the University of Colombo. Gehan who holds a degree in theatre, is often seen on stage as well as Broadway performing in many operas, musicals and dramas and also directing, while Jaliya who has just graduated as an engineer from Jesus College, Cambridge, has toured extensively with the Cambridge choir, the most recent being in Australia performing Beethoven 9 with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Anagi, meanwhile, is a qualified marketer, part-time teacher and choir director; Rachel has completed her Advanced Certificate in Singing from Trinity College, London, being Sri Lanka’s prize winner for 2010; Joanne is a Licentiate in singing from Trinity College, London and holds a Master’s from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
There will be a guest performance by the Menaka Singers’ Junior Choir.“Singing is such a good stress-reliever,” says Dhanushi, commending “Aunty Menaka” as a wonderful teacher. “We have fun practising and learn a lot from each other.”
Gehan speaks for all performers when he says that without Aunty Menaka “we wouldn’t be singing, much less achieving so much in the first place. It was she who found our hidden talents, nurtured them and helped us to develop them”.
The Menaka Singers’ Opera Ensemble is well-recognised, with their professionalism extending beyond the expectations of audiences at any concert. They have participated in international productions such as ‘If I Were King” and ‘Pearl Fishers’.
They are trained by Menaka de Fonseka Sahabandu, for whom opera is a wonderful form of music, “the most sophisticated and most probably the grandest”.
Opera singing requires special training for an extensive period of time, according to her.Samata Sarana in aid of which the concert is being held provides a variety of services to the poorest of the poor, without considering race, religion or ethnicity.
It is administered by Fr. Joe de Mel.‘A Grand Night for Singing — at the Opera’ will be on 7.30 p.m. on September 7 at the Lionel Wendt. For information and tickets, contact the Lionel Wendt on Phone: 011-2695794.
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