A musical superbly presented:
Tyagaru at the Hindu Temple
By Velcheru Narayana Rao
Atlanta, GA: Carnatic Music Association of Georgia deserve high
praise from all music lovers for the admirable presentation of
Tyagaraju, a Carnatic Musical Show based on the life of the
great singer-composer on February 15, 2009 at the Hindu temple
of Atlanta, Riverdale. Telugu association of metro Atlanta, TAMA
sponsored the event.
The one and half-hour musical kept the audience riveted in their
seats and received a well deserved standing ovation at the end.

The legendary life of Tyagaraju is tastefully utilized in the
play, which allowed for the use of some of the greatest his
compositions stringed together to structure a superb narrative.
The musical compositions sung from the background gave the
impression of being actually sung by the actor who played
Tyagaraju, Eswara Prasad Dontu. The lip synchronization was
truly perfect.
The compositions themselves were sung really beautifully by
expert Carnatic singers Mantha Srinivas and Vempati Srivalli
Sarma in Andhra. The success of the performance owes a lot to
the arresting beauty of the songs. The quality of the music and
the rendition of the songs were truly superior and totally
enveloped the minds of the audience in an extraordinary
aesthetic experience.
The actors played their roles admirably, saying their lines with
precision and poise. Besides Eswara Prasad , who played
Tyagaraju, Lakshmi Vedala, who played his wife, Suma Yellamraju,
who played his daughter, Ramakant Rallapalli, who played
Tyagaraju’s elder brother and Durga Yerramilli, who played the
elder brother’s wife deserve special mention. To be precise
there was not one actor that did not play his or her role well.
The team work was truly superb.

The conversations were sparse and allowed for the music to take
over at every crucial turns of the story making this a stylized
play instead of an uncomfortably realistic drama.
Death is difficult to present on stage, but the two scenes which
show death -- one that shows the death Tyagaraju’s wife and the
final scene which shows the death of Tyagaraju himself -- were
very tastefully presented.
It would have been easy to make this a melodrama with an excess
of sentiment and a number of tear-jerking scenes. The actors and
director Syam Yellamraju deserve our praise for not doing so.

The costumes and settings were a bit gaudy and perhaps did not
need such a jumble of clashing colors, but despite this minor
flaw, the superb music that surrounded the presentation and the
fine acting that followed gave the play an assured success.
Community Theater is admittedly produced by amateurs, and is
usually seen to be a notch lower than professional theater, but
this play assures us that, given the facilities of a proper
stage and equipment it can be successful before a wider
audience.
Director Syam Yellamraju and his team of actors, musicians and
associates deserve our admiration for a job well done.

Prof. Velcheru Narayana Rao,a world renowned Telugu professor
commending the artists Also seen Syam Yellamraju in black Tshirt
director of the drama
(Prof. Velcheru Narayana Rao, a well known Professor of
Languages and Cultures of Asia is here in Atlanta teaching
Telugu language in Emory University. He witnessed the musical
show. He specially interacted with the artists and commended
their performance).
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