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Operas set in India

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Gauk
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« on: January 12, 2019, 09:53:36 am »

On New Year's Day I was with some friends sitting round the fireside, when someone posed a challenge. What operas are there that are set in India besides Delibes's Lakmé ?

Any suggestions?

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Hattoff
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« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2019, 10:41:32 am »

Holst, Savitri. Nominally set in India but could be almost anywhere.
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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2019, 11:21:22 am »

It's true that there are not very many operas set in India!  Even the only opera about an Indian leader (Satyagraha) features only Gandhi's time spent in S Africa.

The Pearl Fishers is set in ancient Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka)

Elgar's cantata Crown Of India is not an opera - but was originally presented in a fully staged and costumed version, at the London Coliseum, with the composer himself conducting.  I have previously expressed my contempt for this piece on this forum, so I won't repeat it all again.
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Toby Esterhase
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« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2019, 01:47:12 pm »

This is performed in India:

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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #4 on: January 12, 2019, 05:55:19 pm »

Almost every culture can find a point of contact with Carmen... if they are ready to square up to it
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Dimana
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« Reply #5 on: January 12, 2019, 09:21:57 pm »

Two French operatic offerings:
Massenet: Le roi de Lahore
Roussel: Padmavati
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jimfin
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« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2019, 09:09:31 am »

Solomon's The Nautch Girl, or the Rajah of Chutneypore, is presumably set in a pseudo-Indian state. It was the first Savoy opera not written by Gilbert or Sullivan, put on after the Gondoliers, as Gilbert forbade any of his works to be produced there during his quarrel with Sullivan.
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M. Yaskovsky
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« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2019, 10:21:20 am »

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Operas_set_in_India
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guest224
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« Reply #8 on: January 14, 2019, 03:19:05 pm »

Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "Sadko" isn't set in India, but has the sublime "Song of the Indian Guest".....
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redole
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« Reply #9 on: January 14, 2019, 04:45:33 pm »


A helpful listing, but (at least) Spohr's "Jessonda" is missing...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessonda
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jimfin
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« Reply #10 on: January 15, 2019, 11:37:53 am »

If I might cheekily add more Savoy opera: The Lucky Star, by Ivan Caryll, based on Chabrier's L'Etoile (I can't fathom if that is supposed to be set in India itself: seems more middle eastern)
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jimmatt
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« Reply #11 on: January 15, 2019, 04:49:15 pm »

Peggy Glanville-Hicks' "The Transposed heads". I don't like it because it sounds too much like all her other music and I can't imagine how it would be staged (two male singers with identical bodies and interchangeable heads?). Nonetheless set in India.
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