Fr Agnel Local House, Pilar, will be staging Lenten musical operetta ‘Kallokant Uzvadd’ on March 30 at Fr Agnel Central School ground, Pilar at 7 pm. The operetta is conceptualized by Pilar Fathers, with music composed, arranged and directed by Fr Peter Cardozo. The lyrics are contributed by Fr Octaviano Cunha and Fr Dominic Alvares.
Throwing light on this Lenten reflection, Fr Peter says that the one and half hour operetta will throw light exclusively on the life of Mary Magdalene. “According to the Holy Bible, she was a sinful woman and enjoying life to the fullest,” he says.
“One of Jesus’ apostles, James encounters Mary Magdalene and he reveals to her about Jesus. She is curious to know who Jesus is, and when Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus for meals to his place, Mary gets to know about the visit there and she proceeds there without any invitation or permission,” reveals Fr Peter.
“As Mary Magdalena washes the feet of Jesus with her tears and then anoints him ith the most expensive perfume,” Fr Peter states, “Judas the traitor is jealous and criticizes the woman regards wastage of money and perfume.”
“After encountering Jesus,” Fr Peter says, “Mary Magdalene was never the same. She accepted her sinful life and got converted. “Today she is a saint in our Catholic Church,” he adds.
Differentiating between an opera and operetta, Fr Peter says that the former has only songs from beginning till the end and it goes with the music, with no dialogues or commentary in between, while the latter carries a commentary and dialogues in the beginning, in between and at the end.
At the start of the operetta, there will be a commentary explaining the significance of darkness, which include crime, theft and other vices, while light, which signifies all good deeds like charity, generosity, giving alms.
Fr Peter informs that there will be a huge stage erected for the operetta with LED screen. There will be no curtains, but only enactment on stage. There will be four ‘motets’ sung by 8 singers and accompanied by 10 musicians, which include ‘Agony in the garden’, ‘Where you there?’, ‘Sorrowful Mother’ and ‘Moga, Moga’. “There will be four live scenes enacted on stage and at the end the participants will question the audience: ‘What do you want? Light or Darkness?”
Fr Peter discloses that the operetta ‘Kallokant Uzvadd’ was staged 30 years back and the same comes back to life today. Instead of those so-called ‘Lenten shows’ running across the state during the Lenten season, which are a sheer distraction during the season of grace with more of entertainment than reflection, if such operettas were staged across Goa in different parishes, it would have definitely served as food for thought and soul as well.
