culture-vultures
the beaux-arts in brussels is hosting an 'india festival', from oct 2006 to jan 2007. all sorts of stuff...music, dance, films, literature, exhibitions. 3 months sounds like a LONG time for a festival, but most events are only on weekends, so actually it isn't as extensive as one may think.
so far, we have caught some really nice performances.
music:
1. sanjeev abhyankar and pt. jasraj.
abhyankar, as i realised later, has sung some stuff that i had been listening to of late (the vir-rasa-shloka mentioned in the tag 2 posts ago). he charmed me instantly with his humility and constant smile, as much as he did with his music. he requested for some soft light to be thrown on the audience, so he could see our expressions and ensure that we "weren't falling aleep". and while the technician gaffed the lights for the next 10 minutes (first they didn't come on, then they were too bright, then they wouldnt go off), he at no point showed the slightest sign of frustration. he explained each song before starting it, which was particularly helpful for me. and i could tell that he enjoyed himself every moment as much as his audience.
am sure many of you have had the chance of watching jasraj. he is now almost 77, and still can be as impressive as 20 years ago. i don't really "understand" classical hindustani, but enjoy it from time to time. while i couldn't appreciate nuances, i was completely absorbed nevertheless. but, i must confess, i was disappointed in his manner. he entered the stage quite grandly, separately, after all other accompanists and singers were already seated (they had walked onto the stage together). he entered to a standing ovation, with his arms raised in blessing. dressed in orange silk dhoti and a prominent rudraksh and gold mala, he could have been a modern swami. i don't recall him in such an avataar, maybe the last time i watched him i was too young. after seating himself, a lady from the group picked up the mike and said, "panditji wants me to tell you...". that disappointed me further. why couldn't he just tell us himself! it all just seemed terribly lofty. of course, i forgot all this as soon as he started singing :)
2. trishul: martin speake, dharamveer singh and sarvar sabri.
a jazz-cum-classical band with the sax, sitar and tabla. they started off quite slow, i thought, but picked up soon and performed some really good compositions. in one piece, sabri played the ghatam, and it was truly refreshing to hear its sound along with the sax (this may not be a new thing for those of you steeped in music, but for me it was a first and i really liked it). it lasted barely an hour, and i wish it had been longer.
dance:
the opening act was a stunning dance dialogue between an odissi and a bharatnatyam dancer, madhavi mudgal and alarmel valli (i wrote a few words on this one a couple of posts ago). in addition, we watched a part of a kathakali performance by the kalamandalam group from kerala. this was my first experience with kathakali.
the entire performance lasted more than 4 hours, and the theme was 'scenes from the mahabharta'. we stepped in after the 1st half, and watched for about 1.5 hours. the first 20 minutes, i was completely lost. they had put up wide screens with some sub-titles in french and ducth, so that helped. but it took me a while to get used to the music (that specific drum they use). initially, i just took in stuff and tried to make sense of it. the 4 musicians were standing around the 2 kathakali dancers, quite a change from other sorts of dances where the musicians are seated to one side. the dress was more ostentatious than i had imagined, and the gestures were less grandiose and expansive than i had expected.
once i got accustomed to these things, the dance-drama became quite absorbing. it got easier to identify the characters the dancers were playing, when they changed and what they were trying to communicate. though i think it would have been impossible to make sense of it without the sub-titles. with time, i actually started enjoying it! we left soon after s nodded off to sleep in the audience :)
theatre:
they staged lillette dubey's "sammy". i recently read "the life of mahatma gandhi" by louis fischer, and was looking forward to seeing the stage portrayal of the man. the conceptualisation of the play was rather unique in that they managed to maintain a chronology of events and exchanges even though the exchanges themselves could be seen as stories in themselves. joy sengupta was extremely convincing as gandhi, and i thought they depicted his personal struggles, strengths and weaknesses as well as is possible in 2 hours.
yet to come:
mallika sarabhai, chaurasia, asha bhonsle, gundechcha brothers, zakir hussein. don't know whether we wil be able to catch most of these, my baby may arrive before them!!
so far, we have caught some really nice performances.
music:
1. sanjeev abhyankar and pt. jasraj.
abhyankar, as i realised later, has sung some stuff that i had been listening to of late (the vir-rasa-shloka mentioned in the tag 2 posts ago). he charmed me instantly with his humility and constant smile, as much as he did with his music. he requested for some soft light to be thrown on the audience, so he could see our expressions and ensure that we "weren't falling aleep". and while the technician gaffed the lights for the next 10 minutes (first they didn't come on, then they were too bright, then they wouldnt go off), he at no point showed the slightest sign of frustration. he explained each song before starting it, which was particularly helpful for me. and i could tell that he enjoyed himself every moment as much as his audience.
am sure many of you have had the chance of watching jasraj. he is now almost 77, and still can be as impressive as 20 years ago. i don't really "understand" classical hindustani, but enjoy it from time to time. while i couldn't appreciate nuances, i was completely absorbed nevertheless. but, i must confess, i was disappointed in his manner. he entered the stage quite grandly, separately, after all other accompanists and singers were already seated (they had walked onto the stage together). he entered to a standing ovation, with his arms raised in blessing. dressed in orange silk dhoti and a prominent rudraksh and gold mala, he could have been a modern swami. i don't recall him in such an avataar, maybe the last time i watched him i was too young. after seating himself, a lady from the group picked up the mike and said, "panditji wants me to tell you...". that disappointed me further. why couldn't he just tell us himself! it all just seemed terribly lofty. of course, i forgot all this as soon as he started singing :)
2. trishul: martin speake, dharamveer singh and sarvar sabri.
a jazz-cum-classical band with the sax, sitar and tabla. they started off quite slow, i thought, but picked up soon and performed some really good compositions. in one piece, sabri played the ghatam, and it was truly refreshing to hear its sound along with the sax (this may not be a new thing for those of you steeped in music, but for me it was a first and i really liked it). it lasted barely an hour, and i wish it had been longer.
dance:
the opening act was a stunning dance dialogue between an odissi and a bharatnatyam dancer, madhavi mudgal and alarmel valli (i wrote a few words on this one a couple of posts ago). in addition, we watched a part of a kathakali performance by the kalamandalam group from kerala. this was my first experience with kathakali.
the entire performance lasted more than 4 hours, and the theme was 'scenes from the mahabharta'. we stepped in after the 1st half, and watched for about 1.5 hours. the first 20 minutes, i was completely lost. they had put up wide screens with some sub-titles in french and ducth, so that helped. but it took me a while to get used to the music (that specific drum they use). initially, i just took in stuff and tried to make sense of it. the 4 musicians were standing around the 2 kathakali dancers, quite a change from other sorts of dances where the musicians are seated to one side. the dress was more ostentatious than i had imagined, and the gestures were less grandiose and expansive than i had expected.
once i got accustomed to these things, the dance-drama became quite absorbing. it got easier to identify the characters the dancers were playing, when they changed and what they were trying to communicate. though i think it would have been impossible to make sense of it without the sub-titles. with time, i actually started enjoying it! we left soon after s nodded off to sleep in the audience :)
theatre:
they staged lillette dubey's "sammy". i recently read "the life of mahatma gandhi" by louis fischer, and was looking forward to seeing the stage portrayal of the man. the conceptualisation of the play was rather unique in that they managed to maintain a chronology of events and exchanges even though the exchanges themselves could be seen as stories in themselves. joy sengupta was extremely convincing as gandhi, and i thought they depicted his personal struggles, strengths and weaknesses as well as is possible in 2 hours.
yet to come:
mallika sarabhai, chaurasia, asha bhonsle, gundechcha brothers, zakir hussein. don't know whether we wil be able to catch most of these, my baby may arrive before them!!
posted by sattva at 1:04 AM
4 Comments:
Your post is somewhat similar to what I'm planning to write this time :-)
Is it Sanjeev Abhyankar who sang 'Piya Baawri'...that song and album, both, were pretty good.
keep the good spirit in between and listen to bodhisattva :))
in the query of ur last post- reading phil lesh's autobiog, hungry tide of amitav ghosh, a ray bradbury book and american splendor comics! also a short story collection - Shankha Ghosh (a renowned bengali poet).
ghost, would love an update on the flm/theatre scene in bombay. esp prithvi and exprimental...my fav! not sure if piya bawri was by abhyankar, tho'.
gift, went to yr blog to listen to the bunch of songs including bodhisattva, but it had expired :( american splendour comics??? never heard of those! which specific ones?
wow, that's quite a list! enjoy, and tell us how the remanining went.
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