Celebrating a decade of opera in India at anniversary concert

An 18th century French opera 'The Fakir of Benaras', considered lost untill it was discovered by chance and revived for Indian stage, finds place in a festival that incorporates nine operas performed in cities across the country over the past 10 years.
Staged excerpts of the nine operas are set to be showcased at the festival here on December 7, which commemorates the 10th anniversary of Neemrana Music Foundation, a non-profit promoting Western classical music in India.
The showcase of operas, co-presented by the European Union, also pays tribute to heritage conservationist and hotelier Francis Wacziarg who started the foundation in 2001, and who passed away earlier this year.

"With its grand spectacle of music, song, dance, drama, costumes and sets, operas whose subjects revolve around topics of love, despair, grief etc are like a Bollywood film, which Indian audiences can relate to," says Priya Wacziarg Engel, the daughter of Wacziarg who is coordinating the event.
Incidentally, the score of "The Fakir of Benaras", a love story and the first opera to be staged by the foundation was discovered by chance by Priya, a soprano herself, at a music shop in Paris.
Other operas produced by the foundation since then include "The Pearl Fishers", "Carmen", "La Traviata", "If I were King", "Hair", "Mozart Magic", "Don Pasquale", "Orfeo Crossing the Ganges" and this year's production "Romeo and Juliet."

"We are very excited about the upcoming show which is truly a spectacular one. My father was one of the first to introduce the idea of producing the opera genre in India. The world has become more international and with countries like China having operas he wanted India to be on the global scene with its own homegrown opera," says Priya.
Although operas were in vogue for over 400 years it became a form of popular entertainment, it developed in structure and plot only towards the end of the 18th century. Prolific Austrian musician Mozart, composed operas in a variety of styles and languages.

"We have produced operas which see India not through the eyes of Europeans but through Indians themselves. Our productions have been staged in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai and in Paris and Colombo too," says Priya.