Opera House

The Jamshed Bhabha Theatre promises Mumbai audiences international quality sound and spaceWhen it comes to Western music performances in ...

The Jamshed Bhabha Theatre promises Mumbai audiences international quality sound and space

When it comes to Western music performances in Mumbai, all roads seem to have tread one beaten path: the Tata Theatre ensconced in the National Centre for Performing Arts NCPA. The destination stays the same, only orchestras will now make a slight detour, to the opulent Jamshed Bhabhatheatre inaugurated on November 24 within the NCPA8217;s sprawling complex. Named after the trustee-chairperson, the theatre, with a seating capacity of 1,150, and a proscenium stage, promises to be the first choice for many a group which has been habituated to performing in cooped auditoriums with poor acoustics. The theatre also holds out some hope that the handful of Mumbai8217;s Western music orchestras will now have a space they can truly call their own.

quot;The Tata Theatre has been designed for Indian music performances and has its limitations when it comes to Western music orchestras while the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre can be tunedaccording to one8217;s requirements,quot; says Jinny Dinshaw, whose Bombay Chamber Orchestra will be the inaugural act at the theatre on December 1.

Audiences seem to prefer hopping over to the NCPA rather than trudging to the Homi Bhabha Theatre 8212; the nuclear scientist was the elder brother of Jamshed Bhabha 8212; at Navy Nagar. Coomi Wadia, who has been waving the baton for the Paranjoti Academy Chorus for the past 32 years, says, quot;The Homi Bhabha Theatre is adequate, but it is far out. When foreign artistes are performing there, people land up somehow, but when we are performing, nobody wants to come. They feels it8217;s expensive.quot;

The Jamshed Bhabha theatre would also figure on the checklist of cultural institutions like the Alliance De Francaise and Max Mueller Bhavan that frequently fly in Western music and dance groups. quot;Groups from abroad come in with great many technical demands, which many of the halls here do not fulfil,quot; says Amita Desai at Max Mueller Bhavan.

There8217;s one loud note of dissent though:Jiten Merchant, theatre director who last performed Wasteland, termed the theatre as a quot;colossal waste of moneyquot;. The auditorium has cost about Rs 40 crore. quot;I can sum up the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre in two words: White Elephant. I am disgusted that so much space and money has gone towards yet another auditorium when it could have gone towards setting up a school to train musicians. After all, an opera house requires singers, a chorus and an orchestra, none of which we have! If the NCPA is serious about the performing arts, it should put its mouth where its money is and work towards an infrastructure for music,quot; he says.

Merchant, who has trained as an opera singer in the West, also pointed out that an opera theatre would come only after the basics are in place. This is like putting the cart before the horse, he exclaimed. quot;After all, you don8217;t need the world8217;s greatest theatre, but only the world8217;s greatest musicians.quot;

8212; NANDINI RAMNATH