Evergreens back in the limelight

‘Legendary Music’ will see one of the pioneer singers of the local art scene Vincent de Paul Peiris on stage along with three generations of his family- his daughter, grand-daughter and great grand-daughter on June 23 at Punchi Theatre, Borella.

The programme is the brainchild of Malini Weeramuni, in recognition of some of the country’s famous singers who are no longer in the limelight.

“Punchi Theatre has always staged drama, so I thought why don’t I do something new, something different such as getting all the old singers into the Punchi Theatre. I thought of Ivor Dennis first as he is Sunil Shantha’s most senior pupil. His concert on March 31 was a huge success and then in May, we had Christopher Paul, Vivian Boralessa and Narada Dissasekera.”

Vincent de Paul Peiris, who will be featured next Saturday is one of the icons of the Tower Hall era whose singing career spans more than 59 years. The most remarkable feature of Vincent de Paul Peiris, as Namel Weeramuni claims, is his dynamic nature even at the age of 84.

“Vincent looks like a person of about 45 or 50 years, smart and well dressed all the time. He keeps to the fashion of that particular age just like Eddie Jayamanne who always made sure to wear a tie whenever he went out. Vincent de Paul Peiris keeps to that tradition,” Namel said.

Vincent de Paul Peiris became famous with hits such as ‘Sri Padey Samanala Kanda Penei’ and ‘Bicicale, Bicicale’.“The distinguishing feature of all these legendary singers who were products of the SLBC is that they are still remembered. Today you can become a singer overnight and go unnoticed the following day, except for a few who are very talented. But these artistes are well trained and have total devotion to their profession unlike those who do music as a part time job today,” said Namel.

Malini Weeramuni said she initiated this project as she wanted to utilize the money which she gets from teledramas in a meaningful way. “I love to make people happy. Therefore my objective is to invest whatever money that I get from the teledramas in this project. Even if it is not sufficient, it is my hard earned money that I invest and that gives me utmost satisfaction,” she said.

This project gives the artistes much pleasure as they feel that they have a new lease of life when their talents are recognized and brought forward even at their age.

“Vivian Boralessa told me that it is for the first time that she had gone on stage like this although she used to appear on television and sing in public. But here it was her individuality that was recognized. Christopher Paul said that after 50 years of singing it was for the first time that he was featured prominently in the newspapers. Similarly, Ivor Dennis told me that he had no public performance since 1983 and when I invited him he was in tears,” she said.

The concert at 6.45 on the 23rd will be followed by a dinner theatre along with a paduru party. “The show will be a very informal one with no compering and the audience will be able to build up a nice rapport with the artiste by asking questions while the artiste will in return share his experiences with the audience,” Malini adds.

This project is being done with the assistance of a three member group – Sitara Abeywickrema, Prabath Manohara and Tharindu Madusanka. “Legendary Music’ is scheduled to continue for one year and Malini has many more artistes in mind such as the noorthi people from Tower Hall, Rohana Beddage etc. in the future.

Only a limited number of guests can be accommodated. Those requiring tickets could contact Malini Weeramuni on 2672121 / 0773170117.