Prof Raghavan:
“Last night I had a long discussion with Sri Raja Rao. For the first time: We have two of the outstanding musicians who are part and parcel of Tiruvayyaru Tyagaraja Utsavam representing the continued conservative tradition . They will be taking an active part in our Utsavam.”
“Here is the scenario I envision:
At center stage, with all of our usual arrangements for Pancharatnam, Dr. N. Ramani will be sitting at the center separting the kids side and teachers and adults side. Like in Tiruvayyaru Tyagaraja Aradhana, Ramani will play solo: Chetulara in 2.5 kattai flute followed by Guruleka etuvanti. Just like in Tiruvayyaru right after that the pancharatna kritis are sung.
I told Raja Rao that we have several changes with specific goals and the rest of the part will be like what we normally do starting with Sriganapathini. But as part of the Tiruvayyaru tradition after each Pancharatnam is completed, kalpura harati is shown to the pooja Mandapam with Lord Rama and Tyagaraja Swamy. This will be taken care of for this year by Sri Raja Rao. Depending on the situation, Ramani will move from center stage to the center of male pancharatnam group. This means he has to use flute to accomodate C-sruti Panchartanam. He might decide to move out and take any front seat also. This I will know after talking to Ramani. When the Panchartna kritis are completed, a whole coconut is to be broken after showing Kalpoora arathi and some one takes the coconut and breaks it outside the temple premises as drishti remover.”