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SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL CONCERT REVIEW
The Manganiyar Seduction (U.S. premiere): Royston Abel (director), Daevo Kahn (conductor), Manganiyar musicians, Rose Theater at Time Warner Center, 23.11.2010 (BH)
It would be hard to imagine a more joyous conclusion to Lincoln Center’s ambitious White Light Festival than The Manganiyar Seduction, which rocked the Rose Theater for two sold-out nights in its United States premiere (after being slightly delayed for a few days due to visa problems). The set, designed by director Royston Abel and inspired by Amsterdam’s red light district, houses each musician—singers and instrumentalists—in a towering wall of 36 scarlet-curtained boxes outlined by white light bulbs. (Viewers might be forgiven for recalling a popular American television game show, The Hollywood Squares.)
From over one thousand songs, Abel ultimately chose three examples of traditional Manganiyar music for his ensemble. The core is a Sufi song, “Alfat Un Bin In Bin,” in which a poet, Bulleshah, rejoices in his love of God. Abel added “Halariya,” traditionally used to greet children when they are born, based on the birth of Lord Krishna, and the final song, “Neendarli,” in which a wife tempts her husband with all sorts of delights to keep him from going to sleep.
But the infectious, vividly sung music is irresistible even without knowing the texts. These Muslim singers (and one Hindu), primarily from the Indian district of Rajasthan (near India’s Thar Desert), have astonishing range and control, whether singing a cappella or with stringed instruments such as kamancheh and sarangi; the percussive sounds of dholak, morchang and dhol; and the distinctive woodwind colors of murli and algoza. During the fast-paced 75-minute show, the singers built powerful, throaty choruses, anchored by the viscerally exciting percussion battery. The charismatic conductor, Daevo Kahn, offered playfully athletic dancing and at one point, a hyperactive solo on kartal (similar to castanets), delivered with a grin toward the audience as if to say, “You didn’t know it was going to be this good, did you!”
In packaging this centuries-old material, Abel’s brilliant idea was to gently shape it in a way that highlights its aural drama and mounting ecstasy—the kind of show that one could dance to (and I wanted to). By the end of the evening, the entire audience was rocking out in Sufi bliss, gently moving in their seats. Judging from the huge roar when the music stopped, the seduction was completely successful.
Bruce Hodges