The nightingale from London

Friday, April 7, was certainly a red-letter day for Karachi’s music buffs as they were treated to the most varied music, oozing versatility at the Karachi Arts Council. 

The music oscillated between the two genres that are otherwise light years apart. At one end of the spectrum was the baroque and classical pieces of George Fredric Handel  (Baroque) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Classical), and at the other, the late Noor Jehan’s Punjabi film song which was the rage of the 70s, “Sayon Ni Mera Mahi Mere Paag Jagawan A Giya”, all rendered with utmost perfection.

The star: a stunningly lovely young London-based Pakistani woman, the first-ever Pakistani opera star in London. Her name: Saira Peter.

She held the audience spellbound not only with her golden voice but also with her surprising versatility.

She set the ball rolling with the English translation of Sindhi Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif’s mystic poetry. The rendition was simply flawless with her mellifluous, floating Mezzo-Soprano, her measured control over her vocal cords, and her total breath control. It would not be out of place to say that she sounded quite a bit like the late opera diva, Dame Joan Sutherland, or the contemporary Sarah Brightman.  This was followed by “I dream the dream” from Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, flawlessly rendered. This was followed by a piece from Carmen.

After that there was the vocal version of one of the German-British composer George Fredric Handel’s Lascia, followed by a piece from a Mozart opera. Then there was a French semi-classical piece.

The most remarkable part of it all was that the lady speaks neither German, nor French, as Raafia Rafiq, the compere, told the audience, yet the rendition of pieces in these two languages would have given one the impression that one of these languages was her mother tongue.

The surprise was not long in coming when after the Mozart piece, she switched over to Indian and Pakistani numbers, and while she rendered the Western classical masters with perfect ease, it was no different when it came to subcontinental classical music despite the fact that the two genres of music are light years apart. 

She sang an Indian film song with the classical tune Raag Bhairvi. It was from the 1960 movie, Koh-i-Noor, sung originally by the immortalised vocalist, Muhammad Rafi, with musical score by the late Naushad Ali. The song was, “Madhupan Mein Radhika Naache Re”. The rendition was no less perfect than Rafi’s. To say the least, it was superb.

Another aspect of her performances was the manner wherein she seemed to mesmerise the audience, the way they joined in the singing, the hearty clapping to the beat of the songs, like in the late Noor Jehan’s Punjabi film hit of the 1970s, “Sayon Ni Mera Mahi Mere Paag Jagawan A Giya”. The evening was a mighty treat for the otherwise entertainment–starved citizenry of Karachi.

However, we must give credit where it’s due. Stephen Smith’s piano (read portable keyboard) accompaniment was absolutely astute. It turned out that Stephen was not just an adroit pianist but also a seasoned harmonium player as he provided accompaniment to the vocalist for the Indian-Pakistani numbers.

Since, according to the organisers, Saira had been held up in a traffic jam and hence was inordinately late, Azhar Hussains’s instrumental ensemble entertained the audience to certain numbers till such time as Saira arrived.

They really took the large gathering on a nostalgic trip back in time, and presented an antique Noor Jean-Surrinder duet, “Awaz De Kahan Hai”, from the 1944 movie, Anmol Gharhi, again musical score by Naushad Ali.

Even though, unfortunately, there couldn’t have been anybody among the audience from that era to savour the nostalgic trip back in time, or just a handful, it was a very, very welcome piece, most melodiously rendered.