Composer  Shirish Korde, famous for his ground breaking work that blends Indian and Western classical music presented a preview of his grand Multimedia Chamber Opera The Bandit Queen as part of the Sensational India festival held at the Peabody Essex Museum on Sunday April 11th which is based on the life of Phoolon Devi.

"Phoolon Devi is a character who has always fascinated me. Her story has the right elements for a Opera with its highly dramatic elements  and hence  I felt that I should create an Opera to reflect her life" says Shirish Korde. His other operatic works have included Chitra , based on Tagore Chitrangada and Rasa , a character from Bharathi Mukherjee's book.

This production includes a unique combination of western classical , Carnatic and Hindustani music along with Bharatanatyam Dances and a video presentation to support the tale.  "We feel that the many dimensions of this production are necessary to depict this complex tale. I am very fortunate to have worked with excellent artists including  musicians from the  Boston Musica Viva. The main soprano role is done by Zorana Sadiq.
Elizabeth Keusch is another Soprano and Brian Church is the Baritone. We also have Carnatic Vocalist Deepti Navaratna,  Aditya Kalyanpur, Chirag Katti as part of the music group and Urmila Mallick, Prachi Dallal and Mesma Belsare as part of the dance team" said Korde.

The preview event at PEM opened with a rendition of Rag Lalit on the Cello by Jan Müller-Szeraw. He was accompanied by Aditya Kalyanpur on the Tabla. Carnatic Vocalist had brilliant rendition of the Lalgudi Jayaram Valaji Varnam "Chalamu Seyanela". Her beautiful voice combined with her excellent training allowed for excellent raga exposition while also bringing out the Bhava of piece . Deepti is a great new addition to the Carnatic music scene in New England. Deepti also presented a Bihari folk song (a Biraha Geet). Again the rendition was  Bhav pradhan. Zorana Sadiq , who is the soprano for the Bandit Queen presented a beautiful love poem by Faiz in the Soparano style. The presentation ended with a Dhun by Sitarist Chirag Katti.

The preview quite clearly indicates that the Opera is  indeed a brilliant piece of work and a must see.  To buy tickets please visit
http://www.thebanditqueen.com

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