Rajsthani musicians steal show at Melbourne Fest

Melbourne: Rajasthani musicians received standing ovation when the hundreds of locals flocked to see their performance at the Melbourne Festival.

`The Manganiyar Seduction`, created by an Indian theatre director Roysten Abel, received rave reviews at the festival and attracted the best crowd from the city. The musicians of the Manganiyar community, were sitting separately on cut out cubicles of a tall facade, each of which was covered by red velvety curtains. The stage was aesthetically lit around by light globes, which was the unique selling point of their performance. The beat of the drums, Sarangi, Dholak and Marwadi and Sindhi songs sung in the most crisp and refreshing voices of these desert musicians were perhaps par excellence. It is said that Abel brought this musical seduction after being inspired by Amsterdam`s infamous red light district. The performance left the jam packed audience seduced, which progressed slowly in intensity through a passionate performance entwined with historic ballads with Sufi poems and other celebration songs. A barefoot conductor Deu Khan kept the music lovers awestruck with his exuberant dancing hands and feet and his kartal (castanets). The show was an opening event at the Melbourne Festival which is truly a spectacular production that took the Manganiyars - a caste of Muslim musicians from Rajasthan - around the world since 2006. PTI