Gayathrie returns

Gayathrie loved singing from childhood and was encouraged by the recognition she received at inter-school competitions, both at Girls' High School Kalutara and Holy Family Convent Bambalapitiya, which she attended.

She started singing lessons with Mary Anne David when she was 15.

Another well-known personality in the music sphere whom she admired for his kindness and helpfulness to young singers, was the late Lylie Godridge.

In 1991, Gayathrie was accepted as a student at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London from which she graduated with a Royal Academy Bachelor of Music Diploma. 

She continued her studies at the Mayor Lisman Opera Centre, and now studies with the renowned Noelle Barker and Paul Hamburger towards a full opera repertoire.

Her distinguished record as a soprano includes the coveted first place at the International Young Singer of the Year competition held at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. She wrested the title from over six hundred competitors from all over the world.

Among her other notable successes were first place at the Robert Sutcliffe Inter-Conservatory Special Competition for Singers; first place at the Cardigan Opera Challenge competition at the Cardigan Musical Eisteddfod and first prize for Opera, Recital and Leider in 32 competitions affiliated to the British Federation of Music.

Gayathrie has played a number of operatic roles which include such recent engagements as: Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana at the Teatro Bisamar in Barcelona; Angel in The Dream of Gerontius with the Redbridge Music Orchestra; Viennese Evening with the Kent Concert Orchestra at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury and at the Winter Gardens, Margate. 

She sang the title role Carmen with the Belcanto Festival Opera at the Hawth Theatre Crawley; and also gave concerts and recitals throughout the UK, Europe and Australia.

A range of more popular music in which she has been hailed in leading roles, like Annie Oklahoma, Hello Dolly, West Side Story, South Pacific Oliver, The Sound of Music and My Fair Lady, point to the versatility of her repertoire.

She made her West End debut as soloist in Sunday Night Variety at the London Palladium.

Gayathrie's concert programme at the Russian Centre will include operatic areas from Puccini's La Boheme, Rossini's Semiramide, Donizetti's Linda de Chamounix and Mussenet's Herodiade.

She will sing songs by Faure, Brahms, Liszt, Richard Strauss, Tosti and Leoncavallo.

The duets she will sing with the Australian coloratura Clare Mance will include Flower Duet by Delibes, Bach's Barcarolle, Mozart's Ave Verum, Cesar Franck's Panis Angelicus and Handel's Largo. Gayathrie's husband, William Patrick, and Soundarie David are the piano accompanists at the concert. 

Featured Sri Lankan singers are Tharanga Goonetilleke (soprano) Nimantha de Alwis (baritone), and Dhillan Gnanandurai, a 17-year-old baritone who will make his debut on this occasion.

Tickets are available at Titus Stores, Liberty Plaza. 

Alfreda de Silva 

Book review

Magic and sensitivity recreates social history

"Reflections" is a beautifully written compendium by Bro. (Dr). Baptist Croos, FSC representing a melange of articles published mostly in the local English media. The collection offers a veritable pot pourri of topics ranging from religion, cricket, culture and poetry to love and human enterprise. It is this diversity that enhances the book's appeal and quality. 

Although the book would at first glance appear compartme ntalized because of its topical variance, one soon gets the impression that it has an episodic feel. There is a link in the stories, forging certain images, phrases and events like a diaphanous web.

The author deems it touchingly heroic to write about the ordinary and not so ordinary people and events of our times. The notion of heroism is what the book is basically about. "Reflections" celebrates that gallantry, finding it - at various times - in almost all its narratives. 

Clearly, the author's earlier books, including "Values Education", "Laugh off your problems", "Lilies and Roses" and "Reaching for the Stars", established him as a writer worth watching. With this comfortable and well-developed book, he is on his way to becoming a major force on the Sri Lanka literary scene. 

Bro. Baptist Croos is gifted with the novelist's eye that is fresh and sharp. His anecdotes reflect not only this aptitude for perception but are also sustained by a remarkable intensity of purpose.

The overall theme may on the surface be construed as inspiring, "sunshine" stories providing cheerful diversions aimed at lifting the spirit. True, but they are also an exorbitant concoction of both idealism and reality. That message, is a grim one, that history teaches us little, and that human beings will continue to abuse and murder one another with the belief that their cause is right and justifiable. It also delivers a disturbing assessment of mankind, but it is appealingly written and gives the reader much food for thought.

Bro. Baptist is a gifted magician with words, knows his social history and writes with a remarkable sensitivity. Some of his articles provide an easy way to incorporate a modern viewpoint within a historic context. In others, he captures the dynamics of the hopes and expectations we bring to new loves and relationships with astounding candour and peppered by gentle bursts of light-hearted banter. 

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