Bangkok--23 Jun--Total Quality PR
Phra Phrohmmangalachan, celebrated "football monk" of Thailand, has accepted the position of senior religious advisor on Somtow Sucharitkul's mammoth "DasJati" Project, the creation of a cycle of ten music dramas about the ten last lives of the Buddha which, when completed, will be the largest single work in the history of music and theatre.
Known as the monk whose blessings are widely believed to have propelled England's Leicester City team to the very top, the globetrotting cleric (often known by his shorter name of Chao Khun Thongchai) was introduced to the project by the composer's sister, Dr. Nadaprapai Sucharitkul, a producer on the project, and immediately expressed profound enthusiasm for the project. "Somtow is a great artist of this nation … of the world," he opined, presented to Opera Siam a number of amulets and a sacred cloth, said to bestow success and blessing.
He went on to say that the first syllables of the ten lives of the Buddha are like a mantra for meditation. Reflecting on those ten syllables can lead one to a deeper understanding of the dharma, he said.
Dr. Nadaprapai said Chao Khun Thongchai's endorsement is an important signal that the DasJati Project, which will have taken twenty years to compose by the time Somtow has done all ten operas in the year 2020, is a truly important work that will become (in the words of one opera critic) "a gift to the world". Having a monk of this level of prestige and popularity on board, she says, will open doors and create an ever-wider audience for this new way of presenting the Buddhist message to the world.
On June 26, as part of the 70th Regnal Year celebration for His Majesty The King, Opera Siam along with Thai Bev, the Ministry of Culture, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Crown Property Bureau and numerous other donors, will be presenting some excerpts from the first five works in the cycle. Among the celebrity cameo performers will be royal granddaughter Khun Ploypailin Jensen.
The entire fifth work, The Chariot of Heaven, will be presented in December, and will be followed by the sixth production, The Architect of Dreams, during the Visakha Puja period in 2017.
Meanwhile the first in the series, The Silent Prince, which already garnered sellout houses and rave reviews in its premiere in Houston and subsequent performances in Thailand, will receive its European premiere this summer with performances in Bayreuth, Germany, as well as Prague and Brno in Czechia.
Please visit https://www.facebook.com/somtow/videos/10154181188428070/ to watch Somtow's visit to Phra Phrohmmangalachan.