[Entertainment]

Brilliant creativity

by Mahes Perera

‘New Frontier’ an experiment in fusion of western pop, Jazz, classical and eastern music using traditional Sri Lankan melodies may well be considered a creative turning point in the music career of Dilup Gabadamudalige.

A brilliant keyboardist, composer and arranger in the western music industry Dilup prior to the release of the CD ‘New Frontier’ involved himself in creating fusion instrumentals one of which ‘Rain’ won him the Observer Gold Clef Award in 1992. Soon he was much sought after by producers to arrange scores for western musical productions, much to the appreciation of theatre goers.

Today he has branched out on writing scores for original ‘Sri Lankan Musicals’. In 2004 he scored the English musical Guttila which was written by Uddaka Tennekoon and the performances were a resounding success.

Now a sequel to ‘Guttila’ has been penned by Uddaka Tennekoon and Dilup has written the score for this new musical as well, titled ‘Revenge’ which will go on boards at the Lionel Wendt Theatre from June 19 to 24. An afternoon chat with Dilup turned out to be interesting.

What made you move into scoring for original musicals? “After Vijanga the music for which I wrote in the Western style and it went down well with audience, the interest was ignited.

I have done musicals, like West Side Story, Les Miserables, Cats, Pirates of Penzance and Joseph ...... and so with Guttila the challenge was greater. Uddaka Tennekoon has written some creative lyrics and it was a pleasure composing the music. This musical is in two acts. Act 1 opens with everybody on stage except the evil man and the chorus is in the tradition of a narrator.

There are about thirteen songs in the first Act and the rhythm changes according to the mood of the play. Act II contains dances and more songs. I don’t want to reveal too much but only say that the musical score is rich in orchestration with Western classical influences, Slow Rock, Hip-Hop, Rock, pop, blues and ballad styles too being used to bring out the rich lyrics and story line. The lighting for the musical is unusual”.

In Revenge the sequel to Guttila, Anoopama is married to Guttila and they live a peaceful life in Benares. Musila who was banished from Benares by king Brahmadatta is back in the city of Udeni.

Though he is wealthy he can never rest until he beats Guttila in a violin duel, and wants revenge. Dushta who is evil personified, appears and is willing to help Musila to challenge Guttila once again. In return he wants Musila’s students as slaves.

Musila agrees and they hatch a plan to kidnap Guttila’s wife Anoopama.Are you happy with the cast and their singing? “Yes. We have remarkable young talent. I spotted Dmitri Gunatillake at a concert and she will play the role of Anoopama. Eraj de Silva will play Guttila, Musila will be played by Christopher Stephen - a role he did in Guttila.

Suleetha Nanayakkara I spotted at a Karaoke Championship and he plays the role of King Brahamadatta while John Wijesinghe and Ravindra Perera play Panditha and Sakka respectively, both characters they played in the previous production.

The rest of the cast who are in the chorus are extremely talented”.

Apart from this musical are you involved in producing CD’s for other new talent and singers?

“Yes. At present I’m producing a CD for the Maldivian singer Rittay and another for Easa Shariff a lyric writer from the Maldives.

There’s a group from Kandy calling themselves ‘Four’ and they are currently laying down the tracks for their CD which I’m producing. The quartet are quite talented - they sing and dance and it is entertaining. I’m also involved in writing the music for the Derana Ms. Sri Lanka which I’m looking forward to”.

Maris Rhythms

Maris Rhythms of 70’s moves away from the norm in its programme content. Presented by the Prefects Association of Maristella College, Negombo with Annesley Malawana the programme will include the release of a CD comprising songs for peace composed and sung by the students of the College and other neighbouring schools they will also perform the songs on this day.

The show will be held on June 7 at the Maris Stella College Auditorium Negombo, commencing at 6.30 p.m. and will also feature some of Sri Lanka’s top artistes like Annesley Malawana, Indrani Perera, Anil Bhareti, Rajiv Sebastian, Mariazelle Gunatilleke, Ronnie Leitch, Shyami Fonseka and Supriya Abeysekera.

Musical backing for all artistes wil be provided by Annesley & the Super Chimes. The distinguished old boy of the College Joe B. Perera will be chief guest and the show that evening will be threaded together by Faizal Bongzo.

The Prefects Association under the guidance of Rev. Bro. Chintana Nonis have made elaborate plans to make the show a memorable event.

A year of musical events

The Moratuwa Arts Forum has drawn up a programme of activities for the current year to help raise funds to construct a building to house their musical activities and their regular meetings.

As such they have planned to hold their popular ‘Down Memory Lane’ sing-a-long in July, the staging of a Sinhala drama on August 17 and a variety entertainment in October. Most important of all is the Musical Talent Contest for Youth which will draw a lot of participation.

According to MAF, a full complement of celebrated artistes is billed to perform at these mega shows. These activities were planned at the AGM which was held in April and the guests were the well known TV & Radio presenter Ariyasiri Vithanage and the Mayor Samanlal Fernando.

Sing-a-long with Sohan

Sohan & The X-Periments will be in the spotlight at the Sing-a-long presented by the Royal Commonwealth Society on June 7, 7.30 p.m. at the BMICH Banquet Hall. Guest spot will be by Manuk and the show compered by Vijaya Corea.

Percussion in the limelight

When musicians gather today to interact with one another percussion will be in the limelight with Rasmar Lye - percussion, Clifford Andrews - guitar, Royle Andrews - drums, Patrick Davidson - bass, Sampath Kuruwita - keyboards and Trevine Joseph - vocals. Hopefully violinist Anthony Surendra and Ann Jayamanne will join them. The spotlight will also fall on vocalist Jean van Heer who heads an outfit with Kumar de Silva - piano, Basil Paiva - bass and Shiraaz Noramith - drums.