A nineteenth-century French opera gets some local flavour with students from AR Rahman’s school of music

The Neemrana Music Foundation, founded by hotelier Francis Wacziarg, is attempting to get opera to appeal to a larger audience, so it helps if there are enough local elements to their productions to add to the charm. If in last year’s epic opera Carmen, staged in April, the fiery gypsy girl from Seville was transformed into a Kathak-dancing bidi-maker who falls for a strapping Bollywood actor, their upcoming production If I were King, set in Goa, has the lead character, the flamboyant Princess of Goa, Nemea, walk on stage kitted out in bright yellow jeans with a corset and a bolero jacket. But that’s not all. The opera, to be staged in January in Delhi, will be a part of the upcoming Bonjour India festival of the French embassy, and will have a cast of about 160 artists from India, Sri Lanka and France. Supporting the 80-strong chorus would be seven students from AR Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory, who would be joining the cast for an extensive three-week rehearsal in December.

If I were King, to be directed by Jean-Francois Vinciguerra, a French three act opera was written by 19th century composer Adolphe Adam in the summer of 1852. Originally set in Goa, the comic opera tells the story of a young fisherman, Zephoris, in love with an inaccessible princess, Nemea. By a stroke of luck, Zephoris becomes the king for a day and manages to declare his love for the feisty princess. “We chose the opera because it is set in India and the audience would relate to it well. The opera is based on tales of travellers in that era and is highly imaginative, but the funny part is that the composer, Adam, had never travelled to India,” chuckles Antoine Redon, executive producer of the opera. Incidentally, the opera hasn’t been performed in France for 20 years.

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