SOUND OF MUSIC AT THE NCPA
Night-long queue for Zubin tickets
Mumbai: It is not just for T20 and Bollywood that Mumbaikars make long queues. They do so for music too. Especially if it is a concert by aapro Zubin Mehta.
The world-famous conductor will lead the centuriesold Bavarian State Orchestra on September 9 and 10 at the NCPA, with such staples of Western classical music as Beethoven’s fifth symphony, Brahms’s fourth symphony and Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto.
For the two-day concert, the NCPA’s ticket counter was to open at 9am on Saturday. But aficionados had started making the rounds of the gate opposite it the previous evening. By midnight, about 50 people had gathered. By 6am, the queue was more than 200-people long.
They were young and old, but mostly middle-aged, and had come from all over the city. Foreigners and expatriates could be seen too.
Snobs & slobs pipe up as Zubin readies to tune in
Mumbai: A cross-section of Mumbaikars had queued up at the NCPA for tickets to Zubin Mehta’s September concert.
There was an old gentleman with a rather distinguished air about him. He had come with Readers Digest and an umbrella. Right behind him was a scruffy-looking man with… only an umbrella. It turned out he was another gentleman’s manservant—his master loved to exert his ears but not his legs. “Sahab bole paanch-hazaar wale do seats lene ke liye,” he said.
There was an old lady telling her teenage grandchildren about the mellifluousness of Schubert’s melodies. Unfortunately for them, Schubert is not on Mehta’s menu for Mumbai.
A college girl was wondering if she would be lucky enough to get a Rs1,000 ticket—the cheapest. The next slot, Rs 2,000, would ruin her dating plans for the month. Her friend, another college girl, commiserated with her over her predicament. Westerners present at the scene might have wondered if it really was a predicament: in their countries, a Mehta concert ticket costs many times more than even the highest slot for the Mumbai concert—Rs 5,000.
A man, neither scruffy nor too distinguished-looking, had forgotten to bring cash and so rushed to the nearest ATM: the tickets were not to be had for plastic money. Before he could return, there was a shout, “coupons, coupons”.
The queue broke. Mumbai’s mundane manners had hit home. Winds from the Arabian Sea had swept away Western sophistication. Western classical music? Never mind.
Mumbai: A cross-section of Mumbaikars had queued up at the NCPA for tickets to Zubin Mehta’s September concert.
There was an old gentleman with a rather distinguished air about him. He had come with Readers Digest and an umbrella. Right behind him was a scruffy-looking man with… only an umbrella. It turned out he was another gentleman’s manservant—his master loved to exert his ears but not his legs. “Sahab bole paanch-hazaar wale do seats lene ke liye,” he said.
There was an old lady telling her teenage grandchildren about the mellifluousness of Schubert’s melodies. Unfortunately for them, Schubert is not on Mehta’s menu for Mumbai.
A college girl was wondering if she would be lucky enough to get a Rs1,000 ticket—the cheapest. The next slot, Rs 2,000, would ruin her dating plans for the month. Her friend, another college girl, commiserated with her over her predicament. Westerners present at the scene might have wondered if it really was a predicament: in their countries, a Mehta concert ticket costs many times more than even the highest slot for the Mumbai concert—Rs 5,000.
A man, neither scruffy nor too distinguished-looking, had forgotten to bring cash and so rushed to the nearest ATM: the tickets were not to be had for plastic money. Before he could return, there was a shout, “coupons, coupons”.
The queue broke. Mumbai’s mundane manners had hit home. Winds from the Arabian Sea had swept away Western sophistication. Western classical music? Never mind.
CLASSICS FOREVER Zubin Mehta brings home the Bavarian State Orchestra
SEPT 9 | Leonore Overture No 3, Beethoven | Trumpet Concerto, Haydn | Violin Concerto, Tchaikovsky | Symphony No 5, Beethoven
SEPT 10 | Overture from the Marriage of Figaro, Mozart | Violin Concerto, Beethoven | Symphony No 4, Brahms
PRELUDE:
Music lovers at the NCPA on Saturday for tickets to Zubin Mehta’s
September concert. Those who arrived around 6am, three hours before the
box office opened, got tickets nine hours later. The concert venue,
Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, seats 1,109
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