The Bangalore Conservatory presented an exceptional performance of Christmas opera on 14 December, 2012 to a packed out auditorium at the St. Joseph’s High School premises. It was part of BC’s Annual Christmas Concert & graduation 2012.
Here’s Deccan Herald’s review on that splendid evening!
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/299330/spreading-goodwill-happiness.html
Spreading goodwill and happiness
Melodious Evening
The Bangalore Conservatory hosted its ‘Annual Christmas Concert and Graduation 2012’, at St Joseph’s Girls High School auditorium recently. The programme started with ‘Christmas Canon’ by the Bangalore Conservatory band, where the Handbell Choir performed carols like ‘Ode to Joy’ composed by Ludwig van Beethoven, and ‘Celebration’ by Cynthia Dobrinski.
What followed was a skit ‘Amahl & the Night Visitors’ that amazed the audience for its operatic nature. Amahl, a physically-disabled boy who keeps informing his mother about his fantasies and mystical characters that he sees, tells his mother one fine day about a star with a long tail that’s up in the sky. His mother pushes this aside, as yet another of his made-up tales, only to realise that the little boy wasn’t lying. A night when they have no more food to eat, visitors drop in unexpectedly and the story leads on from there about who those visitors were planning to visit.
Ezra R Kharsyntiew, a 10-year-old who played the lead role of Amahl in the performance, says, “I was very nervous yet excited about the performance. It was hard to walk around in crutches for the role, but I practised a lot and was able to do my best.”
The Christmas event also saw the ‘CME Kids Choir’, dressed in their red Santa hats singing Dona Nobis Pacem, ‘Carolling, Carolling’ and ‘Amen’. The Bangalore Conservatory Concert Choir sang ‘Carol of the bells’, ‘Candlelight Carol’ and ‘Sinner Saved by Grace’. The programme also saw the graduation ceremony of 12 students of The Bangalore Conservatory.
Esther Susan Rajkumar, one of the members of the organising team, says, “This is the first time we did a performance on such a large scale, and we’re glad to see the response we got. We’ve been practising the carols for more than three months now, and all the hard work paid off well.”
Lalitha K, a music teacher and a carol lover, says, “This is the first time that they’re doing something so big, yet they’ve done a great job. I’ve been coming to their concerts for the past two years now and I make it a point to come with my family always.” Joseph V K, a software engineer, adds, “To see and feel Christmas is to be part of such a crowd. The operatic singing that we saw here was just amazing and so heartwarming. It finally feels like Christmas is here.”