Menaka Singers and soloists back for an evening of opera
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Menaka Singers’ Opera Ensemble (MSOE) in collaboration with Barbara Segal Opera presents After All It’s Opera, at 7.30 p.m. on Monday, November 21. Following a sold-out performance in January this year and a successful dinner-theatre at Anantara Peace Haven Tangalle in September, the MSOE present another evening of spectacular opera arias from Mozart, Donizetti, Gounod, Bizet, Puccini, and Verdi.
The concert will be narrated by British opera singer Barbara Segal and will be accompanied on piano by Menaka de Fonseka Sahabandu, the founder of MSOE. Each aria will be introduced by Barbara with a short synopsis from which it is taken, and the context in which it is sung. This allows even those new to the genre to appreciate the beauty of opera, even though it is sung in Italian, French, or German.
Barbara has been working with MSOE for the past 1 ½ years, holding a series of intensive Masterclasses, helping to identify suitable arias for each individual voice.
Soloists for the evening will include sopranos Joanne Aloysius Rajiyah, Nipuni Siyambalapitiya, and Samali Liyanage, mezzo soprano Rachel Halliday, tenor Niran de Mel, and baritones Nishantha Warnakulasuriya and Laknath Seneviratne. The soloists are members of the Menaka Singers Opera Ensemble, and have many years of experience onstage, with some having been soloists with SOSL, and some, prize-winners at competitions and examinations.
Tickets priced at Rs.1000 are available at Autodrome, 304 Union Place, Colombo 2 Tel 011-2326181 or Menaka- 0714811228.