Nigel Britto
On July 7, 1990, on the eve of the Fifa World Cup final, Mumbai-born conductor Zubin Mehta led a massive orchestra at the Baths of Caracella in Rome. The singers, who called themselves The Three Tenors, were opera biggies Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carreras, who teamed up to create the concept that truly opened the gates of opera to the outside world.
An effort to replicate that magic will transpire in the city on Monday evening in the Tata theatre, NCPA, when British sopranos Patricia Rozario (originally from Mumbai) and Susanna Hurrell will team up with Goan wonderkid Joanne D’Mello in a joint celebration of the female operatic voice, in the style and form of the Three Tenors. The ‘3 divas’ will perform a variety of well-known arias— solo, duet and trio works — taken from popular operatic repertory.
Rozario is one of Europe’s leading opera exponents and a prominent soprano based at the Royal College of Music, where she teaches. She holds an Order of the British Empire for services to music, and has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious venues. Her unsurpassed artistry and top-of-the-range clarity have inspired some of the world’s finest contemporary composers, such as Avro Part and Sir John Tavener, to write exclusively for her. She has recently given premiere performances of many works, most notably Jonathan Dove’s settings of Vikram Seth’s ‘Minterne’.
Rozario has a running project in India that teaches young opera singers the finer nuances of the art. “It doesn’t matter if you’re British or Indian, these young sopranos are an example of what students can achieve if they work towards it,” she told TOI in Goa, where the three sopranos performed before 600-odd people in Panaji. D’Mello and Hurrell are both her former students, and though Rozario has performed in Mumbai before, this is the first time she has embarked on a tour with her students, who are justifiably excited. “It’s a real honour to perform with our teacher,” D’Mello, 24, told TOI.
Rozario is a long-running exponent of the idea that classical music shouldn’t be confined to the niche audiences that assemble inside opera houses. “Seeing live music being performed on stage is second to none,” she says. For the last two years, she has visited India several times to train young aspiring sopranos, and bringing students on tour with her (a rarity in the world of opera) is perhaps a demonstration of what dedicated training and guidance can do to prospective opera singers.
D’Mello and Hurrell have both finished conservatory and are in Belgium and Britain respectively at Opera Studio, the stage in a singer’s career between conservatory and professional singing. At the NCPA, the three will sing in Italian, French, German and English. The repertoire, too, was carefully chosen to “demonstrate the capabilities of the singers,” said Rozario. It will include works by staples like Mozart, Puccini and Handel, as well as less common names like Massenet and Gounod. Two French arias on the repertoire are set in Sri Lanka and India. Apart from the ‘serious’ repertoire, popular fare like the Flower Duet from the opera Lakme, and Adele’s Laughing song by Strauss are also part of the set.
The accompaniment scores for most of the arias are essentially for orchestra, but will be played by British musician and founder of the Chamber Music Company, Mark Troop on the piano. The Mumbai concert will be their last stop of their India tour, after already having performed in Delhi, Neemrana (Rajasthan), Goa and Pune.
An effort to replicate that magic will transpire in the city on Monday evening in the Tata theatre, NCPA, when British sopranos Patricia Rozario (originally from Mumbai) and Susanna Hurrell will team up with Goan wonderkid Joanne D’Mello in a joint celebration of the female operatic voice, in the style and form of the Three Tenors. The ‘3 divas’ will perform a variety of well-known arias— solo, duet and trio works — taken from popular operatic repertory.
Rozario is one of Europe’s leading opera exponents and a prominent soprano based at the Royal College of Music, where she teaches. She holds an Order of the British Empire for services to music, and has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious venues. Her unsurpassed artistry and top-of-the-range clarity have inspired some of the world’s finest contemporary composers, such as Avro Part and Sir John Tavener, to write exclusively for her. She has recently given premiere performances of many works, most notably Jonathan Dove’s settings of Vikram Seth’s ‘Minterne’.
Rozario has a running project in India that teaches young opera singers the finer nuances of the art. “It doesn’t matter if you’re British or Indian, these young sopranos are an example of what students can achieve if they work towards it,” she told TOI in Goa, where the three sopranos performed before 600-odd people in Panaji. D’Mello and Hurrell are both her former students, and though Rozario has performed in Mumbai before, this is the first time she has embarked on a tour with her students, who are justifiably excited. “It’s a real honour to perform with our teacher,” D’Mello, 24, told TOI.
Rozario is a long-running exponent of the idea that classical music shouldn’t be confined to the niche audiences that assemble inside opera houses. “Seeing live music being performed on stage is second to none,” she says. For the last two years, she has visited India several times to train young aspiring sopranos, and bringing students on tour with her (a rarity in the world of opera) is perhaps a demonstration of what dedicated training and guidance can do to prospective opera singers.
D’Mello and Hurrell have both finished conservatory and are in Belgium and Britain respectively at Opera Studio, the stage in a singer’s career between conservatory and professional singing. At the NCPA, the three will sing in Italian, French, German and English. The repertoire, too, was carefully chosen to “demonstrate the capabilities of the singers,” said Rozario. It will include works by staples like Mozart, Puccini and Handel, as well as less common names like Massenet and Gounod. Two French arias on the repertoire are set in Sri Lanka and India. Apart from the ‘serious’ repertoire, popular fare like the Flower Duet from the opera Lakme, and Adele’s Laughing song by Strauss are also part of the set.
The accompaniment scores for most of the arias are essentially for orchestra, but will be played by British musician and founder of the Chamber Music Company, Mark Troop on the piano. The Mumbai concert will be their last stop of their India tour, after already having performed in Delhi, Neemrana (Rajasthan), Goa and Pune.
This article was first published in The Times of India, Mumbai, in its edition dated January 7, 2012.
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