Mirror Magazine

A digitally-mastered soundtrack creating the perfect atmosphere to bring to life some of the Bard’s best loved, gondola-travelling, anti-Semitic characters... Sounds like I’m talking gibberish, doesn’t it? Allow me to explain.

Merging two time zones, keeping all of its essential nuances intact and mixing talent, creativity and technology, yet another dramatic masterpiece is in the making for Sri Lankan theatregoers. Venice, StageLight&Magic’s version of Shakespeare’s Merchant Of Venice, promises to be a treat for all you folks open to something interestingly different.

Of course, giving the production that extra edge is its musical element. Gradually becoming a feature of SLM’s creations, the careful attention paid to the music aspect of their productions, which is given comparative prominence, along with the cast’s acting abilities, makes it a must-explore. I caught up with Ranil Goonawardene, the man behind this undertaking, last week, and tried to absorb the complex process that went into making the end result as good as it gets.

A familiar name in the local music scene, formerly being a member of Kreb’s Cycle and presently with HollowPoint Halo, bringing live music to the theatre seems to be an entertaining undertaking for him. While previous productions by SLM such as Animal Farm had live music, and R&J depended more on a soundtrack, in relation to these, the latest production Venice, has more of a substantial musical component. “My involvement with the production this time around is much more than with the earlier productions, such as R&J, where the production depended on the soundtrack only, and had no live music,” he said.

Though there will be live music at the performance, according to Ranil, the main purpose of the soundtrack for Venice is to put the songs used for the production, on record.

So what of the soundtrack being done in Bombay, at none other than the Bollywood great A. R. Rahman’s studio? “The tracking was done here, capturing all of the instrumental elements and so on. Even the arrangements of the tracks were done locally, at Halien Production House. It is then that we took it to India, and the process of that extra enhancement was done.”

Once they got to the studio, which had the most fantastic equipment, sure to enthrall any music buff, the intricate procedure began. “When you show those guys your work, they embrace it within moments, and get extremely passionate about it. Even if we want to change something slight (this being our soundtrack), they get quite emotional about it!” he said smiling, mentioning S. Sridhar, Rahman’s personal gifted sound engineer, especially.

At this point, Ranil launches into a series of technical jargon that I nod blankly at, but all of it extremely important parts in the process of making the Venice soundtrack. As he put it, “all the noise reduction, editing, cleaning and mixing was done at that studio.” The mastering, which involves increasing the frequency, and which is the final process that gives the product that element of perfection, too, was done there.

When asked what the experience did for the CD, Ranil’s opinion was that it made what was good, much better. “The purpose of the track that we took from here was for them to get an idea of what we wanted, but the creation was taken into pieces and re-compiled, emerging obviously much higher in quality.” Ranil, the only individual to travel to Bombay for the undertaking, feels that he as a musician learned so much from the experience.

With the soundtrack, live music and background music planned, of the entire production, almost 50 to 60 percent will be complimented by some sort of music. According to him, the nine songs which make up the soundtrack were picked after a combined effort of the producer, cast and musicians involved in the production. “You have to keep in mind that a huge audience has to be covered, and so a varied genre of music needs to be picked for a production such as this.”

If you were expecting a phenomenal dramatic interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic by StageLight&Magic, you might be in for some impressive musical splendour as well. So head down to the Wendt, and catch Shylock, Portia, Antonio, Nerissa and the others in action as they woo you in Venice, directed by Feroze Kamardeen and produced by Sirraj Abdul Hameed, scheduled to go on boards from September 1-17 at the Lionel Wendt theatre.