Comments on: Sean Panikkar: He’s an Opera Singer, But Back Then “Nobody Knew I Could Sing”

By: Bea Steelman

Bea Steelman — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 23:07:27 +0000

Hi Sean, this is Grandma Bea. Enjoyed your story about your life so far,because you have your whole live still ahead. If possible please send me a picture of you, wife an daughter, I don’t remember seeing them. I have asked Michael to send me one of your opera’s but I really don’t think I will be getting it.I am so very proud how in just a short time how successful you have become…love…Bea Steelman

By: Alexandria Guy

Alexandria Guy — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 03:32:04 +0000

I just heard Sean Panikker last night in Salome with the Washington National Opera. Not a huge role, but his voice was absolutely one of the evening’s highlights. (And that is with Deborah Voigt in the cast among others.) This guy’s star is on the ascension to be sure.

By: Roth daniel

Roth daniel — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 23:32:14 +0000

To V.V.Ganeshanathan.

The great opera singers Sean Panikkar, & Danielle De Niesse , ,as well as the Accompaniste Pianist Rohan de Silva, the Viola player Ashan Pillai, the cellist Rohan de Sarem and Monaco born Shani Diluka("One of the greatest talents of her generation" whose recordings have won all major awards) are of Sri Lankan origins!

By: Roth daniel

Roth daniel — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:14:59 +0000

A very touching straight forward interview. How true when you speak of the Asian family point of view as to the choise of proffessions! We are sad to hear of the reasons for your parents leaving Sri Lanka. I am only too happy to hear of your success and see in you (Sean) a fine gentleman.I as a father am moved by your feelings towards your daughter. & your wife.It was my daughter who made me aware of your talents. She has a recording of you on the MEZZO” All I can wish is that you & the family will make a trip to Sri Lanka. Its time to heal the wounds and advocate love & harmony . For those who wre blessed with a greatb talent like yours have a strong message to offer.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 22:39:07 +0000

For those of you that don’t know Zoltan is the first name of our recently NFL drafted punter (Zoltan Mesko… the space emperor), and Corperryale is the first name of “Manny” Harris who was a standout for our basketball team before leaving for the NBA draft. Go Blue!

By: Speedy

Speedy — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:29:26 +0000

VV: Nice interview and all-- but "Go Wolverines?!?!?!?!?!" It's "Go Blue!," you twit!

If Mary Sue hears about this, she should, as a condition of your continued employment, force you to name your children Zoltan and Corperryale.

Speedy

By: Kanga

Kanga — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:18:42 +0000

Narayan, Panikkar is his Fathers name -from Kerala , his mother was Singhalese and father Malyalee

By: V.V. Ganeshananthan

V.V. Ganeshananthan — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:06:23 +0000

I’ll def try to do more as I can. Rohan introduced me to Sean and his wifeâ€”that’s referenced in the post above. Thanks for mentions of other musicians! I’ll check them out.

By: Malathi

Malathi — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:33:42 +0000

(For those of you who have never been to the opera, if you want to try it affordably, I recommend my usual method: standing room tickets at the Met, which go on sale at 10 a.m. on the day of the performance.

Ah yes, that's how I became an opera fan too. Love the Met and their display of English subtitles. It helped that I saw Domingo and Pavarotti perform in the same season and that my opera-loving fellow intern from Germany had so much to share about the art and music.

By: samosamancer

samosamancer — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:53:07 +0000

Awesome! As a violinist myself, I’m really digging this glimpse of brown folks in the professional classical music world. They really are pretty rare–besides the big names, like Zubin Mehta and Rohan d’Silva (Sri Lankan pianist who accompanied Itzhak Perlman for a long time), I was pleasantly surprised to go see the New York Philharmonic a few years ago and come across Vijay Kamath, a violist who’s been with them for over 10 years now. (yay, viola represent!)

Actually, the son of one of my dad’s friends studied opera and is apparently a professional singer now. I wish I remembered his name, so I could look him up…this isn’t him, though.

If it’s possible to do more stories on South Asians in western classical music, that would be rad. I’ve unfortunately grown accustomed to being pretty much the only one in all the orchestras/music groups I’ve been in.