The Music Flows Again at NCPA Mumbai
The National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai (NCPA), India’s premier cultural institution and the first multi-venue, multi-genre cultural centre in South Asia, entered its 51st year in December 2019 with a three-day grand celebration. With performances of the finest quality brought in from all over the world and legends of Indian music, dance and theatre who shared their gift of excellence with packed houses, the golden jubilee festivities at the NCPA were a microcosm of all that was to be presented on its stages in the coming months.
The NCPA production of Lehár’s The Merry Widow in the Spring 2021 Season of the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), the thematic Mudra Dance Festival, a unique collaboration where schoolchildren were to present the inspiring life of former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam in a musical strung together with the words of iconic poet and writer Gulzar, an Indian adaptation of British playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s acclaimed work, A Small Family Business, a large-scale celebration International Jazz Day were only some of the events planned. A pandemic, however, was lurking in the shadows and by March 2020, it had robbed us of the joy of live performances in one fell swoop.
That the silence on the stage was to last for nearly a year was not something cultural organisations in any part of the world could have anticipated. After an unprecedented health, financial and social crisis, as Covid-19 cases seemed to stabilise in India and life gradually returned to a new normal, the Tata Theatre resounded once again with Vivaldi, Mozart and Haydn classics in a concert played by the SOI Chamber Orchestra on 3 February, marking the reopening of the NCPA. The news of the reopening was music to the ears of the art-loving people of Mumbai who came out, masks on and hands sanitised, to take their socially distanced seats and soak in the collective bliss of witnessing a live performance again.
Relentless curatorial work had been underway during the lockdown and the 2021 calendar will be a reflection of that. “The NCPA programming has always been a blend of performances by the finest international and local talent. With ever-evolving lockdown rules and travel restrictions, the focus will be on curating high-quality performances featuring local artistes and concerts by our resident musicians of the SOI Chamber Orchestra,” says Mr. Khushroo N. Suntook, Chairman, NCPA. He adds, “Our centre lends itself to splendid opportunities with imaginative use of our open-air spaces for performances. The difference somewhat from our normal fare will be the name of the game. This does not mean that we will stray from the path of offering the best form of classical and contemporary performances, but will suitably adapt them.”
A concert by the SOI Academy Orchestra, comprising students of the SOI Music Academy, the flagship educational initiative of SOI, led by music director Marat Bisengaliev; the NCPA Mudra Dance Festival 2021 that pays tribute to iconic choreographies and musical compositions; Saz-e-Bahar, a festival of Indian instrumental music; International Jazz Day festivities; World Theatre Day celebrations over two weekends in March; and an array of screenings as part of the NCPA’s collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera, Bolshoi Theatre and National Theatre, London, are some of the events that the audience can look forward to in the coming months. Though a beginning has been made, all events remain subject to change in response to the dynamic Covid-19 situation.
NCPA Chairman Mr Khushroo N Suntook with the SOI Chamber Orchestra at the reopening (Credit: Hardik Dinesh Shah)
The audience at the Tata Theatre on the opening night (Credit: Narendra Dangia)
Times such as these indeed demand agility, and the NCPA has used this long interval to grab the mantle of change. The digital broadcast series, NCPA@home, which made archival performances from diverse art forms available online for free at a time when theatres were shut, was much appreciated and took the centre’s offerings to connoisseurs the world over. The organisation has moved closer to the reality of digitising deserving items from its vast archives and future performances; and creating concerts and performances to be offered to audiences beyond those it can host in its theatres. The NCPA’s theatrical production of Simon Stephens’s Sea Wall, shot using a multi-camera set up and in one take without any cuts to retain the essence of theatre, had its web premiere on 27 February. An online series of Western classical and Indian music concerts in collaboration with Citi will soon be available for streaming.
Educational initiatives by various departments at the NCPA moved to the virtual classroom under lockdown and continue to bring much-needed respite to young students from disadvantaged sections of society as well as their families who have perhaps borne the biggest brunt of the pandemic. The arts fraternity itself has suffered considerably in the last one year and the NCPA, while battling its own financial setback, stood by its employees and resident musicians throughout.
In times of war and peace, sickness and health, art has been a healer. In a world starved of live music, dance and theatre, the NCPA is ready to play its part.
Snigdha Hasan, Editor, ON Stage, the NCPA’s arts magazine