Mumbai Opera House’s second act

Mumbai simply couldn’t forget its Opera House — the ornate Baroque centenarian on Charni Road that lent its name to an entire locality. Long after it downed the shutters in the early 1990s, “Opera House” remained the defining address for the bus stops, the diamond traders and other establishments in its vicinity.

Razzle-dazzle: The building’s ostentatious and ornamental Baroque style was restored in full

And its revival three years ago is an equally remarkable testimony to its lasting legacy. At a time when streaming platforms have birthed a culture of binge-watching and multiplexes have pushed single-screen cinemas to extinction, audiences are still flocking to immerse themselves in the live magic of operas, concerts, musicals and dramas in an old-world setting.

In its refurbished avatar, the theatre has returned to its original identity as a cultural centre for all forms of art, rather than the stand-alone cinema hall it had turned into in the 1930s. The credit for this goes to the current owners — Jyotendrasinhji and Kumud Kumari, the former Maharaja and Maharani of Gondal, an erstwhile princely state of Kathiawar, Gujarat. “It was the Maharani’s decision to restore the historic theatre to its original purpose, glory and grandeur,” says Asad Lalljee, curator for the Opera House’s programming. “The Royal Opera House is a very democratic space that welcomes all genres of art. It is a platform for both established and emerging artists.”

Since the relaunch, the heritage site has hosted everything from a private performance by Bombay-born British soprano Patricia Rozario and her pianist husband Mark Troop to sitar maestro Nishat Khan’s solo concert The Moon on the Water, a concert by sarodist duo Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash, the opening show of the 2019 Lakme Fashion Week, and The Indian Classical Dance Festival. Rozario returned in July 2017 with Il Matrimonio Segreto ( The Secret Marriage ), an opera by Italian composer Domenico Cimarosa.

Besides cultural performances, the Opera House has opened its doors to social issues with events such as World Autism Day and International Women’s Day.

Getting back the old look

In 2017, the restored structure received the Unesco Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation, with the awarding committee describing the Gondal family’s restoration effort as a “heroic rescue” and a “gift to the city of Mumbai”. The resurrected building has been included in the World Monuments Watch, a global non-profit programme supported by the World Monuments Fund that is dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage sites.

The restoration work was started in 2007 by Abha Narain Lambah, founder of ANL Associates, which specialises in architectural conservation, building restoration and retrofit, and museum design. “The Opera House was derelict and required severe structural repairs,” says Lambah. There were other hurdles, too. Owing to earlier renovations in the ’70s, Lambah encountered a peculiar problem — the interiors were in art deco style while the exteriors were Baroque.

“The genres were entirely different. An extensive archival research was needed to understand how the Baroque interiors looked before the renovation,” she says. This meant trawling through old photographs and texts that described the interiors and the building dating to 1916. After obtaining various government approvals, she and her team got down to the task of returning the building to its all-Baroque glory. The curvilinear balconies, Corinthian columns, multi-tiered side balconies, pedimented façade and gilded tracery of the original design reappeared. To bring the building up-to-date with modern advances in performative space, they added state-of-the-art lighting and acoustics. The house currently has a seating capacity of 575 spread over three levels — the royal stall, dress circle and grand balcony.

For all times: State-of-art lighting and acoustics were added to bring the building up-to-date with the modern advances in performative spaces

The making of a classy hang-out

Built at a cost of £33,000 through the combined efforts of Maurice Bandmann, a British impresario famous for setting up a theatrical empire in several British colonies, and the Parsi businessman Jehangir Framji Karaka, the Opera House received the “Royal” prefix after it was inaugurated in 1911 by King George V. Between 1916, when it was finally completed, and 1925, the Royal Opera House catered to the connoisseurs of operas, musicals and concerts. “The Royal Opera House, in its time, was probably the symbol of a rising cultural consciousness among the British, whose presence dominated the city, and the wealthy, educated and cosmopolitan elite with whom they rubbed shoulders. During the time, architecture was seeped in a phase of Revivalism, so choosing the Baroque style (ostentatious and ornamental) to highlight a cultural artefact and a place for sophisticated entertainment was only natural,” says Mustansir Dalvi, architect, poet and translator.

Over the years, it played host to iconic performances by Marathi theatre greats Bal Gandharva and Jyotsna Bhole, Gwalior gharana exponent Vinayakrao Patwardhan, Prithvi Theatre founder-actor Prithviraj Kapoor and many others. In the ’30s, the venue became a cinema house and it was acquired by Ideal Pictures in 1935. The Maharaja of Gondal acquired it in 1952. After decades of its existence as a cinema hall, a new storm brewed with the advent of cable TV and video rental companies, pushing the building’s cinema business into loss and eventual closure.

Its revival has rekindled nostalgia and new hope among the old patrons. “I was three when I went to the Royal Opera House for the very first time,” says Sukrit Vijayakar, a long-time resident of Mumbai and a theatre enthusiast. “We had gone to watch Janwar in 1965. I still remember Shammi Kapoor dancing to Tumse Achcha Kaun Hain . I have seen a couple of movies there. Post the reconstruction, I had the opportunity to attend a seminar on, of all things, opera appreciation. I could see how well the structure had been redone.”

Some of Kandivali resident Venkatesh Iyer’s favourite memories of the theatre have to do with its outdoor displays. “I used to see the Royal Opera House from the bus each morning while going to work. Unlike other theatres they didn’t always use posters and banners. They also used gorgeous mannequin-like figures of the actresses. One such image that comes to mind is of Mumtaz wearing the costume in the song Bindiya Chamkegi .”

What does the return of a heritage structure such as the Royal Opera House mean for Mumbai and its people?

Deepa Krishnan, an expert on sustainable tourism and founder of Magic Tours of India, which curates heritage walks in the city, stresses on the universal value of heritage preservation. “Most believe heritage preservation is a pastime for the elite. They say that the average working Mumbaikar doesn’t care, because there are far more pressing day-to-day survival issues to worry about. My personal experience, though, is that heritage structures appeal to anyone with an eye for beauty, whether rich or poor. Public buildings like museums, train stations or single-screen halls have deep personal meanings with memories of family visits or school picnics intimately tied to them. Thus, not only the elite but the working class of Mumbai also mourn the passing of old and beautiful edifices; any restoration is therefore welcome.”

Mumbai is home to several heritage structures, many of them in the southern end of the city, where the port was historically the prime point of entry. Dalvi says the excellent restoration of the Royal Opera House, among the last of its kind in the country, has returned it to its original purpose, and along with the restoration of the Bhau Daji Lal Musuem, the oldest museum in the city, Mumbai has managed to preserve a slice of its essential cultural heritage for posterity.

Lavanya Shanbhogue is a feminist research scholar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. She is the author of the novel The Heavens We Chase