PANAJI: When Maria Badstue steps on to the conductor’s rostrum at the Mumbai Royal Opera House later this month, it will be a long-awaited homecoming.
Maria was last here in 1982, when as a five-month-old baby she was adopted from Pandharpur to a small city in Denmark. Back in India for the first time since, she’s set to lead the orchestra for the first-ever fully staged opera at Girgaon’s iconic landmark. “It totally makes sense to return to India with western classical music,” Maria says.
This is perhaps the first time ever an all-Indian cast is presenting an Italian opera in its entirety — Il Matrimonio Segreto (The Secret Marriage), a late-18th century comic opera by Domenico Cimarosa.
The brain behind the production, Mumbai-born British soprano Patricia Rozario, explains: “It’s a journey for Indian audiences. It’s not a very difficult opera. We have to pick material that people will enjoy. This one is lively and tuneful.” As is the norm for foreign-language operas everywhere, the production will feature surtitles — onscreen translations of the Italian libretto being sung. But for Maria, her unique background makes this visit more than just about the music.
“I am deeply affected seeing the poverty that is present more or less all over the city,” she says. “I am thinking a lot about the fact that it could have been me living on the streets.” And as she walks into the majestic opera house, the irony is not lost on her. “This is a huge emotional contrast, surrounded by gold and red carpets inside the opera house when poverty is right in your face outside the door,” she says.
For three days from July 27, Maria will conduct an ensemble of 20 musicians from the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI). On stage will be a crop of some of India’s finest operatic talent, sourced from all over the country. Most of them are products of Rozario’s ‘Giving Voice to India’ programme, which she started in 2009 in several Indian cities to train young singers in western classical singing.
Interestingly, Rozario has double-cast the opera (there are 12 singers for the six roles). The cast prominently features Oscar Castellino, the baritone whose composition was recently selected as the Mars Anthem by a major American advocacy group.
“It's important for good Indian singers to have performance opportunities,” says Rozario, who teaches at London’s Royal College of Music and was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2001. “Young (Indian) singers are now coming to me.”
As for Maria, she hopes this is only the first of many visits to India. “It was such a great pleasure to arrive at the airport and be surrounded by people who look a bit like me,” she says. “It would be a great personal and professional pleasure to return and contribute to developing western classical music in India if I can,” she says.