The magic of opera

I went to the Zubin Mehta concert at Brabourne on Saturday. It was an extraordinary spellbounding experience. I just have to share a few of my thoughts and experiences from it.

The concert was mainly an operatic act; tenor and soprano et al. Now obviously opera is not something we grow up listening to, the closest I have come is during Dil Chahta Hai. I took its tickets simply because they were the only ones available; the violin and piano concerts had already been sold out. Although highly skeptical about how I’ll take it, I thought I’ll atleast experience it once and will atleast enjoy the instrumental interludes if nothing else.

The evening, as I said, turned out to be exhilarating to say the least. The first moment came even as we entered Brabourne, when I saw the throng of people queued up neatly to enter. The arena was packed..all sold out!!!! And majority of them were serious opera buffs, not the page 3 types. This wasn’t going to be a Joshua Bell moment at all!! (for more on that, click the link http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html)

The next moment came as Placido Domingo came on stage. That’s when you realize that class needs no introduction. Post concert and post wikipaeding him, it turns out that he is the most versatile opera singer alive, having sung and enacted over 130 different pieces!! The other singer was Barbara Fritolli, who was a bit too Castafiorish for me, with an extremely high pitched voice and all. Didn’t like her too much in solo, but the duets were amazing. And there was of course Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Now on opera itself. The most striking part of opera is that the singers really reallllllly feel as they sing. The softness in their voice and on their faces during a romantic piece or the pride and passion while singing Granada (Placido’s favourite; Granada is written for a Spanish city of the same name) is evident. In fact, Placido stopped singing in between a romantic duet and starting balleting with Barbara instead, and most of the stadium felt like doing the same!! And it is this passion which differentiates them from the rest. Another thing. Their pitch doesn’t change too much. It’s the modulations in the volume and tenor of their voices (from the soft low tone to the loud grand typical operatic glass breaking voice) that more than does the trick.

Also, I realized that western and Indian classical vocals are much more similar than the instrumentals are. Both have to ultimately do with highly skilled and highly passionate singing. Listening to Placidos deep baritone voice made most of us remember Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. And Westerns easier to relate to as unlike Indian classical, it has lyrics as well. So those of you who like Indian classical vocals, do give the opera a chance. I am sure you’ll love it.

I’ll move on to the orchestra now. In a nutshell, the Placido effect made the orchestra look pretty pedestrian. They played all popular works which were good, but no where made me feel divine. Western classical music has many lighter ‘fun filled’ works, but they somehow give more of a ‘band’ feel than that of a distinguished classical piece. And they all end up sounding more or less the same. Unfortuntately, Zubins orchestra played only these more popular works yesterday, and sounded nothing more than a refined circus band to me, specially with there being Placido in comparison.

So there it is. I ended up liking the opera much much more than the orchestra!! The concert was brilliant, thanks to the magic and passion of one man; Placido Domingo. His voice singing Granada still reverberates inside me. It was a voice which, as the Washington Post article says, "does nothing less than tell human beings why they bother to live." There are very few things that can uplift someone like music can. And this was once again amply proves yesterday to me!!

PS: If anyone comes to know about any more operas to happen in Mumbai, specially Phantom of the Opera or any of Placidos, please let me know!! Desperate to feel the magic again!!