Arts

Review:

Agni - The story of fire:

A unique Sri Lankan Opera

by Ranga Chandrarathne

Poised to be a theatrical success, Agni or the fire, the latest opera by maestro Premasiri Khemadasa, went on board at the Lionel Wendt Theatre recently.

Khemadasa blends his mastery in Western classical opera with the heart beat of Sri Lankan culture to form a unique opera that is not only an opera in its outlook but an opera of our own, embedded in the ethos of Sri Lankan culture.An orchestra consisting of Western instruments and Sri Lankan drums provided an exotic blend of fusion music which had been the animating spirit, ran throughout the performance.

This unique blend of East and the West makes Agni, a ground breaking work of art which undeniably defines an indigenous form of opera and the adaptation of Western classical arts to Sri Lankan milieu.As the curtain opened a boy goes into the forest and sees the goddess, orange and white spectacles and announces his discovery. Soma, the hunter goes into the forest in search of the goddess.

The goddess, beholding Soma, presents him with the gift of fire, thus marking the birth of civilization and innovations. Then the mortals celebrate the feast of harvesting which maestro modeled on the traditional harvesting festival of Aluth Sahal Mangalaya.

One day, the boy who has been to the forest, says that Prometheus is being punished in the forest by the god for the sin of gifting fire to mortals. Soma and Goddess of Fire also faces the same fate as the Zeus, the king of the Gods who punished them all.

Then, the audience is shown the uncanny coldness, human sufferings and lack of warmth as Khemadasa traces back the very origin of human civilization, before the discovery of fire.

The mode and the tempo of music changes from scene to scene, and to the rhythms of dancing which takes the audience through the cold ice age, and as the audience experiences the snow and rain drops and want of warmth as the opera reaches its climax.

The opera is woven around early primitive human civilization in the ice age in which humans are denied fire. A hunter named Soma is disappointed with primitive hunting. He is a musical representation of a man of culture, technology and civilization. At a great risk, Soma embarks on a journey in search of fire for the benefit of humanity.

According to Agni, the fire is a luxury enjoyed only by the Divine and is not something that humans should inherit. However, Prometheus the God of Fire sends his sister, Goddess of Fire (Gini Devagana), to the earth with fire.

Meanwhile, Gods' Court penalized Prometheus on earth for robbing fire, which is a luxury exclusively enjoyed by the Gods and Soma and Goddess of Fire started a journey to free Prometheus. The opera ends with the journey.

Soma, the main character of the opera is a symbol of the man who dreams of development, culture and civilization. He drifts between reality and fantasy. Though he is the husband of Mihi Paba, he is a Romeo of the past age.

He is a center of social evolution who would risk even his, life in search of knowledge and experience. Goddess of Fire is Prometheus's sister who descended upon the earth from a perfect world because of her curiosity and likeness of life on the earth.

On the contrary, Mihi Paba is a woman symbolizing the traditional woman and her forte is also the traditions and conventional emotions. She wishes that her progressive husband should realize his dreams and aspiration within the conventional family.

The scrip of Agni was written by veteran poet Erick Illeperuma. Agni carries the theme of God's desire of secure power for the immortals. However, Prometheus, one god wants to share the fruit of it with the mortals.

For this reason, Prometheus will always be remembered as a liberator. Agni is the story of power-crazy rulers, Gods or kings; they do not want to share the fruits of power.

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