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Chincha Chancha Cooroo
Many of you will know Tun-tunir Boi, a classic book of children’s stories by Upendrakishore Raychaudhuri, grandfather of the great film director Satyajit Ray. Some of you may have seen my English translation of it, The Stupid Tiger and Other Tales. It was the first book I translated from Bengali, and although I am best known for my translations of the poems and stories of Tagore, I continue to think of Upendrakishore’s delightful book as the one that gave me most pleasure to translate.
When I translated ‘The Foolish Weaver and the Jackal’ (Boka jola ar shiyaler kotha) in Tun-tunir Boi, I remember thinking that it would make a wonderful opera. It was full of music – the cries of the thousands of birds and animals that the cunning jackal assembles to trick the king into thinking that Rajah the weaver is a real Rajah, with a bor-yatra so impressive that he will certainly be a fit husband for the princess!
Through the Indian-born composer Param Vir, I met a young British composer Bernard Hughes. Bernard was immediately enchanted by the story. We called it Chincha-chancha Cooroo, or The Weaver’s Wedding, taking the title from the cries of the tree-pies and doves in the story. It was successfully performed by the prestigious W11 Opera for Young People in London in December 2006. You can read about the opera, and see pictures of the production at http://www.w11opera.org/past_years/2006.html.
Date: 04/05/2009
Location: Peabody School, 70 Rindge Avenue, Cambridge, MA
Time: 2.00 pm
Web: www.brownpapertickets.com
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