One of the most famous choirs of the Northeast region as well as India, the Shillong Chamber Choir are set to perform an opera based on Kalidasa’s Shakuntala.
The opera will be staged in October this year in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.
For this purpose, the Shillong Chamber Choir are training under the able guidance of Director of the world renowned Vienna Boy’s Choir, Gerald Wirth. Wirth arrived in Shillong from Vienna on Saturday.
Gerald Wirth was once a singer in the 500 year old Vienna Boy’s Choir and now its President and Director.
This unfinished opera (Kalidasa’s Shakuntala) by Franz Schubert was written in two parts in 1820 and completed by Fritz Racek. It was first performed in Vienna in 1971.
Another version of Schubert’s opera Sakuntala was completed by Karl Aage Rasmussen in Copenhagen in 2006 and world premiered in 2010.
Gerald Wirth is training the choir on their German diction. He said, “Music is the best way to instill humility in any group because singers listen to each other and the Shillong Chamber Choir has demonstrated this humility and eagerness to learn. I find them quick learners. I shall return here one more time before the rehearsal in Austria with the whole Orchestra and then the final performance in October,” Wirth said, reports The Shillong Times.
Vienna Boys’ Choir, is an organization which does research in psychology and brain science using music as a pedagogy to provide social skills and language skills for personal development. He said that children involved in choir singing are much more developed in social skills and language skills.
