Bring down those tapestries and set the stage for an extravagant evening of murder, deceit, love and passion. Part of the ongoing musical extravaganza at the NCPA, the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) is gearing up to present Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca and an Andrew Lloyd Webber Gala. The opera promises to be a magnificent fare with India’s first fully professional orchestra, SOI, having a woman conductor, Anna Randine Overby, for the very first time. They made their international debut at the Festival of the World’s Symphony Orchestras in Moscow this May.
Mr Khushroo N. Suntook, chairman, NCPA says, “It is the next big challenge for a young but talented orchestra. The first Opera that SOI did was Madame Butterfly in 2008. This is the second Opera that we will be presenting. I am particularly delighted by the collaboration between the NCPA, Marat Bisengaliev, Anna Overby and the Opera Bergen; it has allowed us to create such a spectacular season of the SOI.”
Anna Randine Overby, who has conducted over 80 orchestras around the world, maintains a calm composure as she talks about what it takes to be a woman conductor and how she needs to reinvent herself with each stage appearance. “The initial days of being a conductor were difficult. I have faced many raised eyebrows and indiscipline because I’m a woman. But with time, things got better and today, there is a much more flexible approach towards women conductors,” says Overby, adding that she is happy to have been able to establish her identity in the field of music.
Her lively and animated gestures say a lot about the passion with which she conducts an orchestra. She says she is impressed with the level of preparation of the SOI. “I have been observing them over the years and they now seem prepared to take on the world,” she says. An opera needs at least two to three years of preparation. The grand musical element of an opera is what sets it apart from the other forms of storytelling.
Overby makes an interesting point about the management of music, when she says she needs to be sure that over a hundred people on and off stage are working and thinking in tandem. From the orchestra to the opera singers and from the lights and set design to the costumes, everything needs to synchronised with each other to ensure a performance is perfect. “I believe it is all in the head. Focus is the most important thing. There are times when I get distracted because of members in the choir, but it’s my job to carry on with the show,” says Overby, who started out as a singer before moving on to conducting.
She says that opera singing has become easier these days because of microphones, but she doesn’t allow her singers to ever use one. “The beauty of an opera singer lies in her voice and her body language when she is on stage. And she needs to expand her lungs and demonstrate with facial expressions, all of which is ruined by the microphone,” says Overby.
Another peripheral aid she doesn’t encourage is the subtitle machine, which translates the lines. She believes that unless a person understands the two languages in depth, he/she shouldn’t be allowed to handle it, as there are chances for the rhythm to be missed or a note to fall.
She says a healthy period of break is important between two opera seasons. “Since I have a photographic memory, I tend to repeat the same nuances in back to back shows, which also becomes monotonous. I need a break to take time off, where I can rethink and approach the same song in a different manner,” reasons Overby. The trick, according to her, is not to do shows too often.
She further added that India has that potential to produce large-scale operas. “I have lived in India for the first 18 years of my life and the country has come a long way since then,” says Overby.
Bruno Berger Gorski, stage director of Tosca, feels that Indians approach their art and culture with the intention of making a difference. “It is a great honour for me to direct a classical production for the first time in India and I am especially proud that we are working with an Indian chorus. Since I work a lot in different universities in different countries, I hope that India will also groom young Indian singers, so that more soloists from here can feature in western opera in the future. I am scheduled to direct an opera that is going to be staged in India next year with beautiful music and I am now learning a lot about Hindus and Indian religion,” concludes Gorski.