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Soprano wants to nurture Indian singing talent

Last Updated 19 November 2018, 09:27 IST

It's the Christmas vacation. Soprano Patricia Rozario's beautifully modulated voice soars up and echoes hauntingly through the empty corridors of the Kala Academy where she is instructing local fado singer Sonia Sirsat on the techniques of hitting the high notes.

London-based Rozario is back in India for a short, intense two weeks, doing what she is truly passionate about: helping young Indians discover the depth and range of their singing voice. As the first internationally established Indian opera singer, Rozario feels she owes it to her country to "give something back" after her huge success in the West. She has been extremely fortunate to have made it in a profession that is so competitive in the West, she says, reminded of the struggle in the early years when she had so much catching up to do.

Rozario went to London in the early eighties to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, not expecting in the least that she would emerge in a few years as one of the most sought-after voices in Britain. Critics have hailed her as a super-soprano with "a voice of extraordinary refinement and accuracy".

Her audition for Sir John Tavener's Mary of Egypt in 1991 proved something of a turning point and marked the beginning of a musical collaboration with the contemporary composer that has gone on for over 15 years.  "He was so taken up by my voice that he wanted me to sing and record all of his works." Was he serious, she wondered. Tavener was, and he has written over 30 works for her.

One of Rozario's most notable appearances was across Europe in The Marriage of Figaro, conducted by Sir Georg Solti. Moving from simple singing to operatic stage was challenging, she says.  She learnt soon to shed her inhibitions to take on the role of Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute.

Well established in the contemporary music scene, composers like the Estonian Arvo Pärt, Simon Holt, Delhi-born Param Vir and Roxanna Panufnik have written for her as well.
“Born and brought up in India, I suppose I was unique in some ways," says Rozario who likes to wear a sari when  performing if she can.  Something of a curiosity to Indians not familiar with the concept of western classical singing, the soprano encourages Indian friends abroad to come to her performances.

"A lot of them say it was their first experience, and they actually liked it." India is at a stage where people are really interested in western music and if one doesn't start teaching properly, kids will get into pop music and destroy their voices, says the opera sensation whose exquisite voice has been described as possessing an ethereal quality.
China and Taiwan have been producing so many opera singers, why can't India, Rozario asks. Aided by pianist-husband Mark Troop, the soprano picks a handful of students aged between 15 and 25 for a week's intense session in basic voice techniques. Her
programme also involves training India-based teachers.

Currently professor of Vocal Studies at the Royal School of Music, London, the Goan soprano hopes to take the master classes - held in Goa and Mumbai, so far - to other metros, though funds and official support have been hard to come by. Her huge reputation in the west appears to have escaped India's culture czars.

Her Mumbai classes in early January were conducted in church premises for lack of funding. Sore at being cold-shouldered in her own country, the Mumbai-born Rozario says she's still waiting for an invitation to perform at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, whose hallowed doors have otherwise been open to a string of international Western classical musicians.

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(Published 09 January 2010, 16:20 IST)

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