Darshanie Ratnawalli
Controversies surrounding new renditions of popular songs do have a sociological basis…or rather a basis which owes something to sociological factors. But it’s silly to think it’s all sociological. Enjoyment of music is a function of individual taste which is unpredictable and cannot be slotted so easily into neat sociological cubbyholes. Why did some people react so violently to Kishani’s rendition? Why did a Sinhala TV morning show host liken it to a screeching of a female cat in heat? It’s because a powerful operatic voice trained to hit top notes can sound too powerful for ears used to and raised on Hindustani based music. But no……. even that is not right. Popular music lovers of any country may find opera outside their groove zone. See this video of Whitney Houston, Sting and Elton John attempting to sing an opera aria with Pavarotti …… (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2mMPz_a4vY)…..
Whitney Houston, Pavarotti, Sting, Elton John – La Donna e Mobile 1994
Try a small experiment. I did this unwittingly. I have Diana Damrau’s Je Veux Vivre (Roméo et Juliette) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo5qZQdbBns as my ringtone.
Well, I was at Dr. Nalinika Obeysekere’s Pet Vet clinic the other day when my phone rang. All the people around (Not people brought up on Hindustani based music, mind you) shuddered and shook and made like sleeping cats doused with cold water. Opera is unrealistic, exaggerated and larger than life. It operates on an epic, heroic scale and aims to thrill your soul into soaring, celestial planes. It is exactly right for the song Danno Budunge, which unlike what many people believe is not a Buddhist devotional song, which is supposed to make you serene and calm. Danno Budunge is a song describing Anuradhapura, a glorious cathedral city (I use ‘cathedral city’ tongue in cheek.) where instead of cathedrals giant spherical structures topped with spheres rose into the sky proclaiming the triumph of Buddhism in the island. Of all the renditions the operatic rendition does it the most justice because if you were three travellers touring Anuradhapura, marvelling at this Buddhist cathedral city, where the temporal and spiritual ‘sasana’ has achieved its epitome, far beyond even what the Buddha himself could have envisaged, then your marvel, your wonder, your feeling of actualization as a Buddhist traveller can find the best expression in this heroic and epic musical vehicle. I am no real judge of opera to say how Kishani’s voice may compare with a legendary opera voice like Maria Callas (after all Kishani has never sung main Opera roles in the leading theatres like another Asian, the Korean Sumi Jo has done), but her voice is powerful and it thrills.
Anyway, there’s something about opera which renders all this sociological baggage superfluous. It’s not right to say that Sinhala Buddhists felt threatened with Yahapalanay and with operatic renditions of songs like Danno Budunne, they felt convinced that they will lose their last bastions. Sinhala Buddhists are not some monolith. When I was in Pakistan last November, I presented Danno Budunge Kishni version and Rukmani version to a Hindustani music aficionado as examples of Sri Lankan music and he categorically preferred the Rukmani version. So music is an acquired taste and so many things are going on, at many levels when people love or reject a rendition. Even Michael Roberts I feel pretty sure hasn’t really listened to the Kishani version, which is clear from his statement, “Personally I can listen with JOY to DANNO BUDUNGE anywhere and everywhere …and Kishan’s career and openness suggests to me that her rendering was ELEVATING whatever the context and whatever the machinations around her.” Whether her rendering was elevating or not should be discovered by listening to her, not deduced by her career and openness. I suggest that people should download https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plaKsOtC3b8 … and listen to her version instead of his usual record.
Also it’s no wonderful or novel thing for opera singers to get pelted by the public. It’s almost a tradition. Maria Callas used to be pelted with vegetables: “I remember Callas being bombarded with vegetables as she took her bows after her second New York Norma, a Saturday matinee. Bunches of carrots and heads of cabbage are not sold at the refreshments bar at the Metropolitan.
“They were flung that afternoon by opera-lovers who knew they were going to fling them before Callas had sung so much as a note. Callas could have been dubbed Sutherland or Caballe that afternoon and she would have been pelted. Callas, the woman, was as detested as her infamous wobble or ‘incorrect’ separation between her high, middle and low registers. For these audiences, Callas had three voices and none of them pleased.”- ………………………………………………………..(https://www.theguardian.com/…/maria-callas-far-from…).
So, I think Kishani should have just chilled and concentrated on her art and on giving even more operatic renditions of iconic Sinhala songs in a heroic metre.
Diana Damrau Je Veux Vivre (Roméo et Juliette, Gounod)
Attachments area
Preview YouTube video Whitney Houston, Pavarotti, Sting, Elton John – La Donna e Mobile 1994
Whitney Houston, Pavarotti, Sting, Elton John – La Donna e Mobile 1994
Preview YouTube video Diana Damrau Je Veux Vivre (Roméo et Juliette, Gounod)
Diana Damrau Je Veux Vivre (Roméo et Juliette, Gounod)
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ALSO NOTE …. https://thuppahis.com/2018/09/25/kishanis-danno-budunge-in-2016-further-vibes-and-reverberations/ …. a stirring debate involving Vinod Moonseinghe, Sasanka Perera, et cetera
