The Manganiyar Seduction

NZ Premiere.

From the deserts of Northern India comes The Manganiyar Seduction, a dazzling concert of Rajasthani music. Starting with a solo musician, instruments and voices build, culminating in a spectacular, celebratory musical feast that has drawn sell-out audiences and standing ovations in Sydney, London, Paris, and New York.

“The effect is like that of a gospel Mass or a slow-building rave: a joyous, communal experience of the seductive power of music.”
- Irish Independent (UK)

The Manganiyar Seduction is presented in a visually seductive set inspired by an unexpected synthesis of Amsterdam’s red light district and the Hawa Mahal or ‘Palace of the Winds’ in Jaipur. Starting with a solo musician, instruments and voices build, culminating in a spectacular, celebratory musical feast that has drawn sell-out audiences and standing ovations from Sydney to Dublin, London, Paris, Barcelona and New York.

More than 40 musicians sit in red-curtained cubicles arranged in rows one on top of the other, creating a dramatic and astounding buildup of instruments and voices – an enchanting ‘magic box’ filled with virtuoso musicians. The all-male ensemble spans three generations of Manganiyars whose exuberant and joyful performances are a celebration of life itself.

The Manganiyars are a caste of musicians who traditionally played for the kings of Rajasthan. Their repertoire encompasses ballads of kings, Sufi songs written by mystics, and traditional songs that celebrate birth, marriage, rains and feasts. In a unique performance, they weave together this deeply rooted, complex history into a rousing concert of movement, song and rhythm, under the theatrical direction of Roysten Abel.

“A theatrical spectacle which easily projects the images of India into the mind ... a musical feast”
- The Daily Telegraph (Aus)

Photograph: Roysten Abel

Event listed by Auckland Festival

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