Chennai's date with opera salon

What do opera and Bollywood have in common? Both the art forms wear their hearts on their sleeves, feature big romantic stories peppered with grand marriages and cruel betrayals, encapsulated in a song and dance format. Despite the similarities, while Bollywood enjoys a huge popularity, what makes audiences shy away from an evening at the opera? 

“It is the newness of it all,” began Adam Greig, music researcher and Academic Coordinator at KM College of Music and Technology, which recently conducted an opera Salon, featuring students performing arias by Schubert, Liszt and many other renowned composers. The tradition of opera, said Adam, was prevalent in India, long before the West. “The concept of opera-style performances, which is drama plus music and song, was prevalent in India, in the old Sanskrit performances. Opera is a combination of what India loves about its movies and what the country adores about its live music. But despite that, there has not been a full opera staged here,” added the pianist. 

The Opera Salon also featured a performance by Patricia Rozario, one of the very few Indian opera singers in the world, whose repertoires have entertained the royalty, including Prince Charles and the Queen of England. A professor at the Royal College of Music, the Mumbai-born British soprano pointed out that a lot more Indian people are now opening to opera. “There has always been a small minority, who were interested in western music, like the Parsi and Christian communities. Since then, there has been a big surge in the popularity of opera in India. I started teaching in India seven years ago and we are seeing an increase in the number of students who want to learn the operatic traditions. When I started singing, there were hardly any Indian opera singers but now, Indians are the flavour of the season globally, because we have unique voices, rich timbre and a good sense of fun and expression,” said the soprano, who was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2001. 

Patricia, who has been conducting workshops in Chennai since last year, said that there is a strong commitment to music among south Indians. “The training in Carnatic or Hindustani music, which is common among students from Chennai, develops their voices, very gently but very well, from a young age. In Mumbai, new students have underdeveloped voices, which requires more time to train. The voices here are rich and beautiful,” said Patricia, who is often referred to as the lady who sings opera in a sari. “I initially started wearing a sari to identify myself among the Indians in London. I realised that audiences in countries like France and Spain loved it when I performed in a sari,” added the singer, who, along with her pianist husband Mark Troop, runs the Giving Voice Society, a non-profit. 

Mark, who has performed in India over the last three decades, said that Opera has a bright future in India. “Opera shares many of the Bollywood aspects – heart-on the-sleeve emotions, big romantic stories, lots of marriages and betrayals.“The stories in opera are easily understood by Indian audiences. Indians are good at singing and dancing — so opera is perfect for them. Our purpose is to train the next generation of singers, adminis trators and teachers, who will start the trend of opera here,” said the pianist. 

Adam said that India has the infrastructure and the talent to produce opera shows. “But opera is a synthesis of art forms – you also need highly trained singers, orchestra, set and costume designs. When Operas happen in France or Italy, they are massive, expensive shows, which never really took off in India. We have the infrastructure – ideal venues and trained singers – but we need someone to bring all the bits and pieces together, into a production,” he concluded.