Romantic India

[Th. de Bruijn]

Replying on an older message:

Dear friends
A few months ago someone briefly referred  to "Shubert's
opera Sakuntala". Finding the note I made then I have tried to check
it. Supposing Franz Schubert was meant, a list of his (nearly
forgotten) operas does not including anything Indian. Shubert I do
not know. There is at least one opera founded on KAlidAsa's play,
namely Franco Alfano's La leggenda di Sakuntala, première at Bologna
town opera in 10.12.1921. 
(...)
Strictly speaking, this is not Indology, but nevertheless an
interesting part of the Western conception of India. It would be
interesting to know, whether there are more examples.

Regards,
Klaus Karttunen

Dear listreaders,
there is the opera Padmavati by the French composer Albert Roussel. The work was first performed in Paris in 1923. There is a CD-recording of the opera: EMI 7478918. I have studied the relation of the opera to the legend of Padmavati of Chitor and other literary versions of this theme, but the article I wrote on it is in Dutch. (Th. de Bruijn (1991): 'De sati van Padmavati, inspiratiebron voor Muhammad Jayasi en Albert Roussel', in: Hanneke van den Muyzenberg and Th.de Bruijn eds. Waarom Sanskrit, Honderdvijfentwintig jaar Sanskrit in Nederland, pp.74-85. Leiden: Kern Institute. [Kern Institute Miscellanea 4].

By the way, this is certainly also Indology, as Indology is all about the perception of India in the West.

Best wishes,
Thomas de Bruijn
IIAS/NWO-Leiden University