Rhapsody of the night

It was a rollercoaster ride through an array of emotions. With the ‘Musical Express,’ the 85-member strong voices of Toccata Musical Productions Northern Ireland took people on an exciting journey back in time when Broadway music played in every household.

Bangalore hadn’t witnessed such a lively and spirited performance in a long time.

The singers never lost their expression even when they hit the highest note and sung it with ease and finesse. What added to the charm of the evening was the lively accompaniment. The troupe of dancers played their part to perfection. Their sudden but swift movements generated curiosity among the viewers. They too in their own style, like the singers, had several stories to tell. 

The team sang some popular numbers from musicals such as ‘Alladin’, ‘The Lion King’, ‘Sound of Music’ etc. Songs such as ‘Hallelujah’, ‘River of Dreams’, ‘Good Vibrations’, ‘Hard Day’s Night’ and ‘Danny Boy’ had a few among the audience singing along as well.

The full ensemble came together to render pieces such as ‘Staying Alive’, Dilbar Mere, ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ and ‘Don’t Stop Me Now.’ Talking about why they chose the Bollywood song, Dilbar Mere, Dr Sunil Paulraj, founder Toccata Musical Productions, explained, “I fell in love with the song when I first heard it. And the members were put through some spoken Hindi lessons to perfect the pronunciation. And when they learnt the lyrics, they loved it too.”

Sunil observed that the team had trained long and hard to bring alive every song. “Every song has a story to tell and the writer of the song would have written it in a particular moment. When we sing, we try to convey the emotion the writer had in mind.

Singing is also acting in a lot of ways,” believed Sunil   
The second part of the programme had the team breaking into lively numbers such ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Jellical Cats’, ‘At the End of the Day’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and ‘Circle of Life’ where the dancers pitched in with their quick movements.

 “Each dancer is a professional in his or her own right. They have worked hard to get the movements right,” he added.

The evening ended with ‘We are the world’ and ‘Heal the World’. “We always conclude all our performances with this song. This is a message of peace,” he added. 

Another piece sung by Frank Koine from Kenya titled, ‘Malaika’ drew a lot of applause. Before rendering the song, Frank said, “The song is about a man who wants to marry a girl but her parents don’t think he is rich enough to marry their daughter. So the song traces how the young man works hard to earn money to marry the woman he loves.”    
  
Those in the audience were seen clapping, cheering and singing along. They seemed to know the lyrics of almost all the songs by heart. “The singers are out of the world. They have sung some of the best, all-time favourite songs. The dancers were not only flexible but were a treat to watch,” summed up James, a professional who was at the event.