A MUSICAL REVIVAL
What’s an opera house without opera? In a land with no opera tradition, it can serve as a concert hall, a dramatic theatre, or a cinema hall. Completed in 1916, for most of its 100 years of existence the Royal Opera House (ROH) in Mumbai has served as all of these, before eventually closing down in 1993. Having been inaugurated by King George V, Emperor of India, the onceglorious hall was reduced to a derelict structure.
It would have been consigned to the dustbin of history, but for the intervention of Jyotendrasinhji, scion of the erstwhile royal family of Gondal, which has owned ROH since 1952. He commissioned its restoration in 2010 and the refurbished Opera House re-opened last year. “We see it as a democratic cultural and performance venue,” says Asad Lalljee, curator of