When sitar player and Indian musical icon Ravi Shankar died in 2012 aged 92, he left behind an unfinished opera called Sukanya. Combining a mythological tale from the Mahabharata with Western symphony orchestra and Indian musicians, it concluded a series of pieces bringing West and East together, including a 1967 recording with Yehudi Menuhin.
The piece opens with a sitar solo. In the 2017 premiere the player was Anoushka Shankar, but last night Parimal Sadaphal, a disciple of Shankar, was the veteran maestro on stage. The plot is clearly autobiographical. Stripped bare, Princess Sukanya marries aged sage Chyavana and makes him young again. Sukanya is the name of Shankar’s second wife, 30 years his junior. She probably did keep him young.
Sukanya was semi-staged with a large orchestra plus five Indian musicians on stage with singers and dancers in front and on a platform behind. As a Bollywood film is interspersed with songs, this opera is peppered with dances and other set pieces. One of the most beautiful is a lyrical prayer after the marriage of Sukanya and Chyavana.
The libretto, by Amit Chaudhuri, is curious and the musical setting sometimes awkward, but Shankar had a sense of humour. We hear how the goddess of love “makes politicians pull their pants down” and how “to tune the tanpura you must turn the keys like the doorknob of a palace”. Both are true.
Conductor David Murphy, who completed and orchestrated the work, masterfully brought the ingredients together: the London Philharmonic Orchestra, choir, classically trained singers and Indian musicians. It’s a curiosity, but a perfect tribute to mark Shankar’s centenary year.
