By Dr. Padmavathi Narasimhan
Saint Tyagaraja has composed three operas ‘Prahlada Bhakta Vijaya’, ‘Nauka Charitram’ and ‘Seeta Rama Vijayam.’ ‘Prahlada Bhakti Vijayam’ is a full-length drama in five acts with 48 songs set in 28 ragas and 132 verses written in different meters. It has in addition, invocative, descriptive and introductory gadyas, choornicas and other forms of prose passages of great merit. The interesting part of this musical play is that it does not have the characters of Hiranya Kashipu or Narasimha. Sukanya Prabhakar presented this opera with her disciples on the 11th of this month. The whole event was colourful with the actors in costumes appearing in the role of Prahlada, Narada, the queen and her friends, Samudra Raja, Lord Vishnu and Maha Lakshmi, while the singers were present on the dais throughout. Five senior disciples of Sukanya — her daughter Sumana, Veena, Nityashree, Meera Manjunath and Medha Manjunath — presented more than 15 compositions from the musical play. The play opens with the observation that there is no Vishnu prasada for a man who worships God but ignores his devotees.
