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I take back a comment I made on a previous blog stating Mumbai lacked high arts. There are some high arts in Mumbai, I have discovered, as I happened to go and see the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) perform. And what I saw was somewhat higher than I had imagined.

I went to see Beethoven’s Symphony  No 9 in D Minor , and I have to admit (with shame) that despite being a westerner, it was the fist professional symphony orchestra I have ever seen.

To date, I have generally gone to concerts such as Glastonbury and WOMAD in the UK, or I-Rock in Mumbai, above err, orchestras. I have also never ever been to the opera, in London or Mumbai. (I have been to a ballet, though.)

The first opera I ever saw was, ironically, at the Metro Big Cinemas in south Mumbai when I saw a recorded film of one, namely La Cenerentola performed by Glyndebourne.

But, as a general rule, I prefer live performances (concerts, plays, standup comedy) over digital (films, TV) and try to go to see live performances of anything, as much as possible. There is something magical and awe-inspiring about watching people perform in front of you (less so, when they have had 20 ‘takes’ to do it.)

Although I’ve heard of Beethoven (Ludwig, right?), I had no idea what Symphony in D Minor meant, let alone was.

My Indian friend and I went along, knowing it was something cultured people (like us) should do, but neither of us really knowing what it was all about.

I had interviewed the director of the SOI prior to this and he had stated that he wanted to appeal to “a new army of listeners.” So, I did not feel embarrassed to be wearing jeans - even though everyone was pretty dressed up (women in dresses and men in suits), since, I was after all, representing the new generation of SOI-goers.

The interior of the NCPA Jamshed Bhabha Theatre was more like the interior of Buckingham Palace than what I am usually used to at the NCPA. It was shockingly ornate and posh.

We were given a seat in the front row. Being clueless about orchestras, I have no idea if this was the best or the worst seat in the house…

Anyway, I suspect it was the worst as we were almost too close up to the orchestra and the people sat next to us didn’t exactly look like Bollywood celebs.

But what interested me more was how the people on the stage were dressed. The women were all in black ball gowns and looked like they were about to attend the Academy Awards in Los Angeles …and the men were in Black Tie. Seventeen were Indian and the rest international. The women all had that ‘classic look’ about them – that kind of straight out of  the Pride and Prejudice film appearance, owing to their dress and hair styles. As they played music my mind wandered…I wondered if these people had other jobs or did this for a living? They were so dressed up it seemed like that night was a really special occasion for hem…they seemed to enjoy playing more than I did listening – not that I didn’t enjoy it – but wasn’t sure how to enjoy it. My friend closed his eyes – he later told me that was better as he could get transported by the music….but I wasn’t sure what to do. I had enjoyed La Cenerentola as there were people in costumes wandering around and you could follow the Cinderella story.

But here there was no story, I had no programme and nothing to follow – except fantasise about the musicians, what their lives were like, were any of them dating each other…etc? Were they having dinner at the Taj afterwards? Etc.. A violinist caught my eye and seemed shocked I was in jeans. The conductor acted like a conductor, wildly flinging his arms about…

They all seemed so absorbed in what they were doing – as though that night was like the ultimate moment in their lives…

But  it lacked a visual aspect…How are you supposed to enjoy staring at people playing the violin? Every so often there would be a pause in the music. I was looking forward to the interval as it struck me that at an event like this the whole point was to sip wine and people watch and be watched….

Then after about 1 hour 40 minutes a dramatic chord struck and people started coming on with flowers. “Bravo” Indians with the poshest voice you have ever heard shouted. A lot of people stood up and clapped. So,  I did as well..

I realised it was over. “It would have been nice if they could have introduced each piece of music” my friend said. Neither of us were sure if we had listened to one composition or several…We got out and left. I recognised some south Mumbai faces in the palatial lobby… “Oh! It was amazing, just amazing!” an Indian man gushed in the poshest English accent ever…I wandered back to my friend. Neither of us were sure exactly what was so amazing. Did these people really think it was ‘amazing’, did they really understand it or was it just a high-class thing to do to say that?

Last week I went to the Rambo Circus in Bandra. I guess if the orchestra was high art, this was low art. But  I really enjoyed it. Of course the anti circus brigade started their tirade of abuse well before I went. ‘I’m against circuses” they would say, “Because of the way they treat animals.” Well that is as good as saying ‘I’m against roads because of the conditions stray dogs are forced to live in on the ones in Mumbai.’ What does boycotting a circus do to help? The circus performers need money to pay for the food for the elephants and dogs. If none of us go to one, the animals will starve. It’s not as though there are NGOs in India queuing up to rescue them.  They have nowhere else to go and apart from that, the truth of the matter is, it is not illegal for certain animals to perform at the circus in India (including elephants and dogs) anyway  and the animals actually enjoy it. What a lot of people forget is that animals like to play. What the animals were asked to do was precisely that. Dogs were asked to jump through hoops, chase things  and pick up flags and the elephant had to turn in a circle and hit cricket balls. The animals were all in their element – the dogs wagging their tails; the elephants grinning. In fact, one elephant enjoyed his act so much he produced a monumental pile of faeces at the end, which a labourer rapidly swept up.

I am an animal lover – I have two cats at home and there is nothing they enjoy more than playing with balls, newspapers and so on. They also enjoy performing by chasing balls of newspaper in front of people.

The irony was the animals outperformed the humans as the night I went, the clown , the jugglers and other sketches were not really up to scratch. Girls fell of their unicyles, the flames were dropped and the flying acrobats sketch was cut short because, according to the organsiser, 20 acrobats had got malaria…The animals, however, didn’t drop anything and their acts were perfect.

Nevertheless I had an “amazing, amazing time, yaar” because the circus was and always is magical.

There has been little advertising of this circus, which is a shame. I spoke to the owner Sujit Dilip and he was telling me he had no sponsors and couldn’t afford hoardings. There were, it seemed 5,000 plastic seats inside and only 30 people.

With tickets as low as Rs 50 how do they make a profit? Although many of the acts weren’t great, just the whole experience of popcorn, weird act after weird act, spidermen, African tribesmen and gremlims, plastic chairs, retro music and lighting, the madness of it all, it was unbeatable…

It’s a memory you keep for ever…. I guess the circus is more my level. But I will keep going to the regular seasons at the SOI, in the hope that one day I will be able to shout “Bravo” with conviction like everyone else….

(4 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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Posted by Naomi Canton on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 6:36 pm 
Filed under Mumbai · Tagged Beethoven, Glastonbury, Glyndebourne, I-Rock, Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, live performances, London, Metro Big Cinemas, Mumbai, NCPA, orchestras, professional symphony orchestra, Symphony No 9 in D Minor, Symphony Orchestra of India, WOMAD

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