Metroscape

OTHER METRO STORIES Talent Search On Course Printing History French Connection

Even as the melting pot of Indian art and melody seemed to brim over, the World Heritage Society for Performing Arts (WHSPA) stepped in with its occidental fare. A global cultural forum, the WHSPA chose a December evening redolent of a smugly approaching winter to usher itself into India. At its official launch in Delhi last week, the society and the Indian branch of the Argentina-based Les Lions Ballet Company (LLBC) presented Camerata of Ballet and Opera, a mishmash of dance and song, classical and rock. Foot-tapping and heart-tugging.

Aguilera and Pandullo (above) tango to strains of Pathak and Mullick (below)

The freshly-honed skills of the LLBC-bred Indian ballet dancers and the expertise of WHSPA invitees were laid out before the city's glitterati at The Imperial Hotel. Soprano Situ Singh Buhler's surging flourishes blended with the searing notes of South African baritone Juan Burgers, LLBC Artistic Director Fernando Aguilera and member Silvia Pandullo traipsed to the fleeting grace of ballet and daring plunges of tango, while Indian artists Arun Pathak and Tapan Mullick brought flamboyancy with the guitar and cello. Minor goof-ups did spring up-buzzing intercom, flickering sidescreen-but as Eyvah T. Dafaranos, president and founder of the society, reminded the audience: "Please be kind to us. It has been hard work." The spectators obliged. Loud applause mingled with hushed appreciation. Quite the oriental welcome.

-Riju D. Mehta

Class Apart

Brian Silas is a one-man band on the piano. The Delhi-based maestro, who popularised Hindi film music on the piano, is starting a piano school at his Panchsheel Park home. Rainbows, the firm headed by his charming wife Ravinder Kaur, now offers one-to-one classes for students who can then take examinations of the Trinity College of Music, London. The soft-spoken Silas also plays at the Dum Pukht restaurant in Maurya Sheraton two nights a week. His hands are full now. -Methil Renuka

Swedian (above) ; the book 100 years of Nobel Laureates displayed at the concert (below)

Centenary Concert

Stockholm in Delhi? Even as the year's Nobel laureates were walking up to the City Hall stage in Stockholm to collect their prizes on December 10, 2001 (the 100th year of the Nobel Prize), the Embassy of Sweden in Delhi measured up with a concert to honour Alfred Nobel. Swedish Ambassador Johan Nordenfelt did it with classical Swedish music at his Chanakyapuri residence. An audience of svelte diplomats and Swedish and Indian cultural luminaries listened in polite attention as Swedish pianist Roberta Swedien played works that Nobel loved. A replica of the banquet table laid out at the Nobel Prize dinner in Stockholm was recreated in the ambassador's dining room. Says Hans Nicklasson, an embassy official: "We tried to generate some feeling of the happenings in Stockholm." Prizeworthy.

-Methil Renuka

Burman (above) and Sanyal at the show opening; Spring (below)

A Gilded Gaze

Magician of the riotously-colourful idyll, Sakti Burman returns to India from Paris with a large exhibition of his works and for the release of Sakti Burman: Dreamer on the Ark published by Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai. The show's opening at Delhi's Art Today after Kolkata and Mumbai had celebrity artists Manjit Bawa, Satish Gujral and the venerable centenarian Bhavesh Sanyal. Burman's aesthetic is like a dream in vivid hues, with whispered allegories and lyrical cross-cultural metaphors. As Manasij Majumdar, author of the extended essay in the book, says, "Here, 'music, moonlight and feeling are one' and no shadow hovers here of evil and ugliness, death and decay." Over the decades, Burman has developed a unique painterly language, which is by far the most original fallout of all Indo-French visual engagements.

-S. Kalidas

Let There Be Light

It was a good way to enlighten. Last week, Save the Children, a UK-based group that speaks for abused and underprivileged children in Kolkata, organised a candlelight vigil with 700 young participants from Bengal. Children held aloft candles against the backdrop of the Victoria Memorial at dusk. The idea was to catch the eye of evening joggers, walkers and families on outings. How could they miss with actress Rituparna Sengupta and designer Kiran Uttam Ghosh also pitching in? The organisers dismissed any chance of the event being gimmicky. Said Delhi representative Shikha Ghildyal: "It's the children saying, 'Don't leave us out in the dark, don't forget about us.' But if it takes a gimmick to get that message across, we will do it." No arguing with that.

-Labonita Ghosh

Metro Minutes

Bulbul Sharma and Niladri Paul's exhibition, 'Between You and Me', at Delhi's Gallery Om threw up pedestrian objects-boxes, mirrors, etc-as aesthetic gift giveaways. Utilitarian art at its expressive best, slotted in the below-Rs 10,000 bracket.

Nestle's new offering for the experimenting Indian hausfrau is the Nestle Cookery Collection, a recipe book. The visuals tempt more than the recipes. At Nestle's experimental kitchen in Gurgaon, company head C. M. Donati released the first copy. So what else is cooking?

Son Havana Cuban band in Bali Hi

Cuban music and Cuban cigars are best enjoyed together. Now, Cingari, retailer of Habanos Cigars in Delhi's Oberoi Hotel, in association with the Embassy of Cuba, has got leading Havana band, The Son Havana Group, to play Latin American and English Latino music (for three months) at Maurya Sheraton's Bali Hi nightclub, which will also sell the cigars. The blue smoke of the Habanos will rent the air. Non-smokers beware.

-Contributed by Riju D. Mehta and Methil Renuka