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Attend: Sarod recital by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan

Tonight, sarod exponent Ustad Amjad Ali Khan performs with Vijay Ghate on the tabla, at Nehru Centre. Do not miss.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Today, on the occasion of Mahashivratri, sarod’s most enduring name in India, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan will perform at the Nehru Centre, accompanied by Vijay Ghate on the tabla.

After performing for an august audience at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo recently, the maestro is giving this rare solo performance in Mumbai where he will regale music lovers with traditional ragas and vintage renditions in his inimitable style.

Khan was born into a musical family and has performed internationally since the 1960s. He was awarded India’s second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2001. Khan has recently been awarded 21st Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavna Award. 20 August is celebrated as harmony day, the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi. Khan received the Padma Shri in 1975, the Padma Bhushan in 1991, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2001, and was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 1989 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for 2011. He was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2004. The U.S. state Massachusetts proclaimed 20 April as Amjad Ali Khan Day in 1984. Khan was made an honorary citizen of Houston, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, in 1997, and of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2007. He received the Banga-Vibhushan in 2011. Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan, who has shared his rich experience in Indian classical music in classes across the West, will now teach for a quarter (three months) at Stanford University, this course will have lessons on Sarod as well.

(Picture courtesy www.kavitachhibber.com)

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Watch: ‘The Government Inspector’

The brilliant play about a small money-laundering town and an official arriving to investigate is on at the NCPA tonight.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

If you like humour and intrigue, you cannot miss this play.

The Government Inspector, an NCPA Production in collaboration with Akvarious Production, is on tonight. A group of dysfunctional actors comes together to play a group of small town money-grabbing officials. They get the shock of their lives when they learn that a government inspector is being dispatched to investigate their town and all its local dealings. Gogol’s classic is an energetic comedy of manners, taken one step further by not only satirising corruption in a small town, but also the theatre process itself.

The play has been adapted and directed by Akarsh Khurana, and stars Adhir Bhat, Hussain Dalal, Adhaar Khurana, Dilshad Edibam Khurana and others. The play is on at 7 pm tonight at the NCPA.

(Picture courtesy ncpamumbai.com)

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Watch: The Merry Widow – Lehár

Don’t miss this opera screening from The Metropolitan Opera of New York; stars brilliant actress Renée Fleming in the lead role.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The great Renée Fleming stars as the beguiling femme fatale who captivates Paris in Lehár’s enchanting opera, seen in a new staging by Broadway director and choreographer Susan Stroman (The Producers, Oklahoma!, Contact). In an art-nouveau setting, it features a scintillating climax with singing and dancing grisettes at the legendary Maxim’s. Nathan Gunn and Kelli O’Hara co-star and Andrew Davis conducts.

The basis of the story, concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen’s attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – comes from an 1861 comedy play, L’attaché d’ambassade by Henri Meilhac. The operetta was first performed at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on 30 December 1905 with Mizzi Günther as Hanna, Louis Treumann (de) as Danilo, Siegmund Natzler as Baron Zeta and Annie Wünsch as Valencienne. It was Lehár’s first major success, becoming internationally the best-known operetta of its era. Lehár subsequently made changes for productions in London in 1907 (two new numbers), and Berlin in the 1920s, but the definitive version is basically that of the original production.

The Merry Widow is on at the NCPA from today, February 2 to Wednesday, February 4, at 6 pm.

(Picture courtesy www.nromusic.com)

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Bangladesh comes to Mumbai

This dance performance addresses the issue of sweat shops and why boycotting their products is not such a good idea.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

This evening, be prepared to take a look at ‘sweat shops’ through a mesmerising dance performance.

Titled ‘Made in Bangladesh’, the dance is choreographed by Helena Waldmann and Vikram Iyengar, with music set by Daniel Dorsch and Hans Narva. The performance is based on the theme ‘Dance and Exploitation’, and explores the notorious world of the garment industry and the supposedly legitimate artistic ‘sweat shop’ of a dance studio – both dancers and seamstresses work at the expense of their health, fobbed off with low wages and at constant risk of losing their jobs to someone even younger, even more flexible. And yet, still both industries urgently ask us all not to boycott their products.

Head to the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA this evening at 7 pm. Free entry passes are available at the NCPA and Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai.

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Get a ‘Vitamin’ shot at the NCPA

The internationally-acclaimed comedy play featuring solo performer Carlo Jacucci is on at the NCPA tomorrow. Do not miss this one.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

This is good theatre – and it’s on in Mumbai, at the NCPA, at 7 pm.

Tomorrow, the internationally-acclaimed ‘physical comedy’ Vitamin will play at the NCPA. It combines mime, puppetry, live accordion and surreal storytelling. The show has won great critical praise, five-star reviews and wide audience acclaim.

The British Comedy Guide describes the play thus: ‘Preaching from a book he never read, he (Jacucci) transforms himself into many characters, creatures and things, from a captain to a dancer, a marathon runner, an accordionist, a caterpillar…

Created in cabarets and variety shows across Europe, Vitamin is an internationally acclaimed physical comedy that combines different styles of contemporary comic theatre into a hilarious and moving performance. It plays with our imagination in fun and surprising ways, through mime, storytelling, dance, puppetry, and the unconventional use of live accordion.

In this physical and musical performance, our host Carlo Jaucci takes us to a fantastic world where inanimate objects are injected with vitality and the normal world becomes a lot less normal. Here he shows us completely unrelated but consistently brilliant sketches that range from the bizarre – ‘The Saddest Song in the World’ – to the sublime: the existential caterpillar.

A visually inspiring solo show, Vitamin is created and performed by Philippe Gaulier trained clown Carlo Jacucci, with a free and spectacular imagination and an incisive physical language.

Carlo Jacucci trained at École Philippe Gaulier, where he has taught three months a year since 2011. Founder of Artimmediate (2003), with whom he devised and toured internationally seven solo and collective shows, including Baitman, Beesquit,L’Accordeon-eon-eon, Boxette and Losing Venice, Carlo has been employed as actor and clown by many companies, circuses and theatres, including the Théâtre de l’Opprimé of Paris (2002-05) directed by Rui Frati, with whom he performed all over Europe and in Burundi.

(Picture courtesy ncpamumbai.com)

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Watch: 3 films at the NCPA

Three documentaries – in English, Gujarati and Assamese – will be screened this evening at the NCPA. Don’t miss these films.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The NCPA has been hosting some truly wonderful films recently. Today, too, Mumbaikars have three good documentaries to look forward to under the aegis of ‘NCPA Reality Check’.

In collaboration with the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA), the NCPA will screen Qissa-e-Parsi: The Parsi Story, Rahashyar Bitchaku and Resonance Of Mother’s Melody.

Qissa-e-Parsi: The Parsi Story

The film is an English-Gujarati-Hindi language documentary that aims to understand the Zoroastrian faith, and the Parsi philosophy of love and laughter that makes it so unique and loved. It is a 30-minute film that is directed by Divya Cowasji and Shilpi Gulati.

Rahashyar Bitchaku (Seven Hundred Zero Zero Seven)
This is an Assamese Film with English Subtitles and is 29 minutes long. It is based on the life of Ranju Hazarika, a popular pulp fiction writer of Assam. He has published nearly 700 books. The film is an attempt to unfold the man in an unconventional way so as to engage the audience in the world of the writer. The film has been directed by Altaf Mazid.

Resonance of Mother’s Melody
This is a Khasi Film with English Subtitles, and is 23 minutes long. Kongthong, a remote Khasi village in Meghalaya, is characterised by an age-old practice of communication: whistling. A young researcher visits the place and interacts with the village headman. She discovers that every child is given their own special tune at the time of birth. This wonderful film is directed by Dip Bhuyan.

Head to the NCPA today at 6.30 pm. Admission is on a first-come-first-served basis. NCPA members will get preferential seating till 6.20 pm.

(Featured image courtesy www.delhievents.com)

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