Celebrating the 90th birthday of the Melody King Alfred Rose, this year the Konkani Musical Show will be presented as a tribute to the legendary singer-musician and composer
Goem, Goenkar, Goenkarponn are the magical three words that light up the lives of Goans who are in domicile in any part of the world. Even if a Goan has acquired citizenship of another country due to better job avenues or for greener pastures, his love for his motherland Goa, will never diminish. Once in a foreign land, he will begin looking out for Goans settled around himself and once the Goenkars meet and begin co-existence as Goans, the fallout will naturally be to find Goenkarponn among themselves and the best form of Goenkarponn is the usage of the Maim Bhas Konkani and with this usage comes the Konkani song and tiatr that gets associated with Goa, Goenkar and Goemkarponn.
Mario Carvalho from Pequeno Maddel-Margao was one such Goan who migrated to Melbourne, Australia, twenty-one years ago. The annual feast of St Francis Xavier and some Sports Day and Dance for Goans were being organised. However, the Konkani culture lovers were starving for Goan cultural activities. Mario felt the need for promoting the Konkani kantar or tiatr songs.
In 2010, he along with some fellow Goans founded the ‘Konkani Cultural and Heritage Inc’ group and organised the Carnaval Red and Black dance with King Momo and the accompanying float parade. This group also took the initiative of assisting the church authorities in mobilising people for the Eucharistic celebration and exposition of the sacred relics; the hand of St Francis that was scheduled for a visit to Melbourne. However, the group members due to some reasons decided to discontinue the activities and disband the group.
In the year 2019, Mario Carvalho brought together another four prominent Goans settled in Melbourne, Journalist Franky Fernandes, Josefato Vales a noted musician, Felipe Dias and Titus Fernandes, all having a common thirst: the thirst for indulging in Goan culture and together they decided to organise a Konkani Musical Show in Melbourne.
The Konkani Musical Show was organised in September 2019. The Konkani-speaking populace patronised and attended the event which was rated as a starred performance. This writer has worked with the Music Director Mr Josefato Vales of Seraulim when in Goa, and given his penchant for achieving perfection, and practising till perfection is achieved, can understand the standards propagated in this musical show.
With the grand success achieved in the first edition of the Konkani Musical Show in September 2019, the group of five decided to organise a musical show annually. However, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic wiped away their dreams and aspirations of holding this event as planned, which had to be relegated to the limbo of oblivion.
With the world limping to normalcy post-covid-19 pandemic, the group of five led by Mario Carvalho once again sprung into action and have planned to organise a musical show of Konkani songs on September 24 at St John’s Church Durkin Hall, at Mitcham in Melbourne Australia from 8 pm onwards. The musical show will also be an occasion for the Konkani-speaking audience gathered to move their legs to the rhythm of Konkani music played.
In order to encourage speaking of Maim Bhas Konkani and to promote its usage with children and youth, the entry for them is kept free, while those above 25 would be charged a nominal entry fee.
Celebrating the 90th birthday of the Melody King Alfred Rose, this year the musical show will be presented as a tribute to the legendary singer-musician and composer Alfred Rose. Besides the unique opening song in which the artistes will be introduced on stage as done in the musical shows of old, the event will feature solos, duets, duos and trios in the presentation.
While all singers are originally Goans now settled in Australia, the Dubai-based Goan singing sensation Sanio Fernandes will be flying to Australia to enthral the audience with his unique singing style.
Having no sponsors to back the Konkani Musical Show organised by these five culture-loving Goans, the group has decided to put in whatever minus amount is created and square off the deficit all for the love of Maim Bhas Konkani.
