Leading score

The first woman guest conductor for the Symphony Orchestra of India is a Norwegian

Anna Randine Overby is very busy. With over 80 opera performances to her credit, the singer, educator and choral conductor has performed at prestigious locations worldwide. Invited by the NCPA’s Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) as guest conductor for the Ninth Celebrity Season, she has been preparing since December 2009 for a programme that features Puccini’s Tosca and Andrew Lloyd Webber — selections from The Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard and Evita — with modern instruments to appeal to younger crowds.

Tosca is more traditional opera. “I love Puccini,” says Overby. “There isn’t a boring second in the entire opera.” She auditioned 80 people just for the lead role. The 90-member cast for Mumbai features members of Opera Bergen, a Norwegian opera company founded by Overby, as well as other global artists, and 32 Indians in the choir. She has in the past worked with a cast-strength of 5,000, so she says, “I’m not afraid of logistics; I think women are great organisers.”

About the publicity she has received as the first woman guest conductor for SOI, Overby says, “I am often the first woman. Do you know, in all Europe and America, there are 1,000 male choral conductors and only 34 women. I am also one of the rare women who produce and conduct. A lot of the time that’s so that I can conduct, because if I depend on others, they might never invite me.” She gracefully avoids further probing: “I’m a priest’s daughter, so I try to behave as nice as I can.”

Overby’s priest father did relief work in Bangladesh after 1971, so she went to school in India. “From the age of 5 to 18, I was in boarding school in Ootacamund, Kotagiri and Kodaikanal,” she says, the long names rolling off her tongue. In India she learnt to play the piano.

About the scope for innovation, she is humble, “My own art should be judged by others. People say I mix the mathematics of the score very well with the high drama of the content. Perhaps, as a woman, I am not shy of the dramatic element.” If that is so, why aren’t more women conducting opera? She laughs, and says, “I think in Norway, women and men are 50-50 partners in everything. The only two areas where men are still in control are business and culture.”

Luckily, with audiences eagerly awaiting the start of the season, it’s Anna in control all the way. Applause.

The Ninth Celebrity Season, NCPA, September 21-30.
See www.ncpamumbai.com