Jaane Tu....ya Jaane

Would it be 'Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak' once again with the arrival of 'Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Naa'?
Music review

This is the first feeling one got the moment the first look of this Aamir Khan production was out. Marking the launch pad of his nephew, Imraan Khan, 'Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Naa' seems to be another innocent love story in the offering sans any unnecessary mush, hence going truly with contemporary times. With pretty girl Genelia D'Souza opposite Imraan in this campus flick and A.R. Rahman as the composer, this Abbas Tyrewala debut directorial venture (he also doubles up as a lyricist here), 'JTYJN', is a promising flick arriving this summer. Does the music hold up to the promise? The answer is - Yes!

First things first - when the best of the best of 2008 would be written down, the number 'Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi' would definitely find a mention. Crooned by newcomer Rashid Ali who is being introduced by Rahman on Bollywood musical arena, the song is beautiful from the word GO, the moment guitar strings mark the song's beginning.

Rashid's voice is just perfect for an actor who is being launched in a youthful romantic entertainer and the singer utilizes the big platform to the fullest. While Abbas' lyrics go truly with contemporary times, it is a nice change to hear a Rahman composition in a truly mainstream cinema rather than the historical/period/issue based films for which he has been creating music for quite some time now.

In true Rahman style, he gets together a bunch of singers for the track 'Pappu Can't Dance'. Well, this is the track which is supposedly a spoof on Salman Khan's on and off screen image and has been making news in last few days. The song's beginning has a rhythm which has formed a part of the racy proceedings in the first teaser of 'Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Naa' that had kick started the film's promotion a few weeks back.

Anupama, Benny Dayal, Blazee, Tanvi, Darshana, Satish Subramanium and Aslam come together to sing about this character called 'Pappu' who has seen all the riches in his life. Since the day he was born, he roams around in the best of the cars, has a body to die for, boasts of an impeccable style, but alas, can't dance to save his life. Hence the title - 'Pappu Can't Dance'. A fast moving fun song, which has a campus setting to it and also appears in a 'remix version', 'Pappu' is a song which should be fun when watched on the big screen.

It's a new sound at the very beginning of 'Jaane Tu Mera Kya Hai (Aditi)' that hooks you on instantaneously. This very rhythm stays throughout this song which is crooned for the female character of the film, Aditi, by yet another relative newcomer Runa. If the song's haunting tune wasn't enough, the way Runa renders the track makes it one as the sad theme of the song conveys what the protagonist is going through. A number about a girl remembering the times gone by with the boy she loved, 'Jaane Tu' is composed in a style, which is similar to that of 'Zara Zara' ['Rehnna Hai Terre Dil Mein'] and hence can be expected to grow over a period of time.

The song is later heard in a version meant for the film's male protagonist Jai and is titled 'Jaane Tu Meri Kya Hai (Jai)'. This time around the beginning is even more sombre and takes it's own time to reach the stage where Sukhwinder Singh comes around to hold the centre stage. The pensive mood is conveyed well yet again though this time around the version is even more sombre.

Guitar is at play once again in the number 'Nazrein Milaana Nazrein Churaana'. The best song to arrive after 'Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi', 'Nazrein' deserves to be the next song in line for promotion. Packed with youthful energy, the number has a Rahman stamp all over it and goes in perfectly well with the film's campus mood. In fact just one hearing and you are sure to carry the number along for your next camp fire outing.

Yet again, it's an array of singers - Benny Dayal, Satish Chakravarthy, Naresh Iyer, Darshana, Shwetha, Tanvi, Bhargavi, Anupama - who come together but never once does one feels like trying to find out the singer behind a particular line. A complete team effort which reminds of the number 'Sama Yeh Suhaana' [Goonj] when it comes to it's setting.

The album continues to become better with every passing song, especially so the moment the title song arrives. Surprisingly, instead of 'Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Naa', it is titled 'Tu Bole Main Boloon', which are the opening words of the song. Sung by Rahman himself, the song is a funny take on how this guy and the girl have two different perspectives to everything, even though at the end what they mean is just the same! A bona fide jazz number with soft drums, saxophone and other associated musical instruments in tow, 'Tu Bolev' has an international feel to it in the way it's entire arrangements are done.

After a brilliant 'Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi', Rashid Ali returns with 'Kahin To Hogi Ho' where he has Vasundara Das for company. Yet another beautiful number which carries an Indi-pop feel to it, this love song has such a serene feel to it that one can't help playing the number on a repeat mode. This is a kind of a soft romantic number that you wish to preserve in your iPod and play it your loved one at the first given opportunity. A brilliant number which makes it two out of two for Rashid Ali!

The soundtrack here is unlike a conventional Bollywood score and instead introduces a style, which goes with the contemporary youthful setting. 'Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Naa' is an album, which deserves to be bought this season. With 'Jannat' being the only album which is registering good sales and no other album from past or present matching it's performance on the stands, 'Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Naa' by A.R. Rahman comes as welcome relief.

In an era of experimental cinema, new genres and talents have surfaced who have made huge impact with their indifferent and immaculate talents. If low-profile films like ANWAR brought Mithoon to limelight then AAMIR promises another impressive musical composer in the form of Amit Trivedi. This unconventional psychological thriller brings another consequential name in the musical fraternity.

Upcoming Amit Trivedi makes a striking introduction to the album by rendering out pious moments of spiritualism in melodious piece of 'Sufi' quawalli dedicated to God Almighty in enchanting 'Ha Raham (Mehfuz)'. After Mithoon's brilliant composition 'Maula Mere Maula' (ANWAR), this melodic piece comes out as another refreshing surprise with some great philosophic wordings like ('Sone chamak mein, Sikko khanak mein, Milta nahi, Milta nahi, Dhool ke zarro, Mein dhunde koi toh, Milta wahi, Milta wahi). Murtuza Qadir's impeccably developed vocals bring out spiritually refined sentiments in air that is well concocted with Amit Trivedi and lyricist Amit voices. It has serene shades from Rehman's beautiful composition 'Piya Haji Ali' (FIZA) that stay on in senses till its last beat. This devout number is presumed to be imposing background score that will certainly be appreciating 'emotional' quotient of the flick. Impressive!!!

Amit Trivedi makes himself full throttle as lead soloist in earthen folksy track 'Chakar Ghumyo', song about trials and tribulations of lost protagonist finding his way out in whirlpool of emotions. It has folksy attributes of Ila Arun's popular Rajasthani folk track 'Ghagra Ghoomiyo Re' in its substance but sounds too loud and recurring in its customary arrangements. Do expects twists and turns in the tale with some haunting noir narration in its background when this run loud in theatres. Amit's lyrics sound unsophisticated and crude in its flows but will be finding its major takers among interior audiences.

If you have liking for daunting tracks like 'Ash Tray' and 'Jab Bhi' (NO SMOKING), then this dark noir stylized rip-roaring and pulsating 'Haara' is going to impress you. Amit Trivedi pelts out an intimidating number that comes with reverberating sounds, instrumentals depicting the distressing state of mind of the demoralized protagonist. It's an out and out situational track that will be making its relevance in its cinematic displays.

'Phas Gaya (Never Mind)', another haunting and pulsating track comes in the voice of another upcoming singer Neuman Pinto with rigorous set of westernized arrangements. It has the nerve-racking situational feel where protagonist gets entrapped. The song has typical western feel composition that could well be experienced in RGV's stylized loud and dark shaded tracks like 'Jo Darr Gaya Woh Marr Gaya' (DARNA MARNA HAI) and recently heard 'Johnny Gaddar' (JOHNNY GADDAR). Neuman's invigorating vocals makes impact in its piercing flows but do expect it to making its sound moves in compelling situations of the film.

Amit Trivedi's second most impressive work comes in the form of delectably poised emotional track 'Ek Lau' that showcases captivating voices of Shilpa Rao and Amitabh. It has soulful rendition that talks about the flare ('lau') of life in beautifully conceptualized Sufi musical works and cultured poetic verses. Shilpa delivers remarkable performance in low octaves with a sanctimonious backdrop of tranquil-feel arrangements. Amitabh's expressively poetic lyrics are epitome of divine serenity as it transforms listeners into ambience of spirituality in its relaxing musical appeal. This poignantly melancholic track holds significance for its quality melodic substance that gets epitomized in its brilliant teamwork displays. Soul-stirring!!!

After couple of enlightening vocal tracks, 'Climax Theme' comes out as the only instrumental number that is beautifully amalgamated with soulful 'alaaps', relaxing 'lounge' impact and significant violin works. Marianne D' Cruz makes resounding impression in outstretched 'alaaps' that emotes out in the form of inspiring 'Gregorian chants' in lingering backdrop of haunting orchestration. The latter part has melancholically paced violin works by Jeetendra Thakur that plays in tandem and adds layers of pathos and serenity into it.

Commercially speaking, AAMIR won't be holding any great surprises for its classy appeal, low promotion and bleak face-value but tracks like 'Ha Raham (Mehfuz)' and 'Ek Lau' will be drawing major attention from class listeners for its remarkable quality display. Even folksy tracks like 'Chakkar Ghumyo' and instrumental 'Climax Theme' will be working well for small sect of listeners. After the successful arrival of new composers like Mithoon, Gourav Dasgupta, Bappa Lahiri and Mithoon, Amit Trivedi along with lyricist Amit holds great promise of becoming notable figure in the marquee.

Rating -3/5

Coldplay - Viva la Vida

When Coldplay sampled Kraftwerk on their third album X&Y, it was a signifier for the British band, telegraphing their classicist good taste while signaling how they favor the eternally hip to the truly adventurous; it was stylish window-dressing for soft arena rock. Hiring Brian Eno to produce the bulk of their fourth album Viva la Vida is another matter entirely. Eno pushes the band, not necessarily to experiment but rather to focus and refine, to not leave their comfort zone but find some tremulous discomfort within it. In his hands, this most staid of bands to shake things up, albeit politely, but such good manners are inherent in Coldplay’s DNA; they remain courteous even when they experiment. With his big-budget production, Eno has a knack for amplifying an artist’s personality, as he allows bands to be just as risky as they want to be — which is quite a lot in the case of U2 or James and even Paul Simon, but not quite so much with Coldplay. And yet this gentle encouragement — he’s almost a kindly uncle giving his nephews permission to rummage through his study — pays great dividends for Coldplay, as it winds up changing the specifics without altering the core. They wind up with the same self-styled grandiosity, they’ve just found a more interesting way to get to the same point.

Gone are Chris Martin’s piano recitals, gone are the washes of meticulously majestic guitar, replaced by orchestrations of sound, sometimes literally consisting of strings but usually a tapestry of synthesizers, percussion, organs, electronics, and guitars that avoid playing riffs. Gone too are simpering schoolboy ballads like “Fix You” and, along with them, the soaring melodies designed to fill arenas. In fact, there are no insistent hooks to be found anywhere on Viva la Vida and there are no clear singles in this collection of insinuatingly ingratiating songs. This reliance on elliptical melodies isn’t off-putting — alienation is alien to Coldplay — and this is where Eno’s guidance pays off, as he helps sculpt Viva la Vida to work as a musical whole, where there are long stretches of instrumentals and where only “Strawberry Swing” — with its light, gently infectious melody and insistent rhythmic pulse — break from the album’s appealingly meditative murk. Whatever iciness there is to the sound of Viva la Vida is warmed by Martin’s voice, but the music is by design an heir to the earnest British art-rock of ’80s Peter Gabriel and U2; arty enough to convey sober intelligence without seeming snobby, the kind of album that deserves to take its title from Frida Kahlo and album art from Eugene Delacroix.

That Delacroix painting depicts the French revolution, so it does fit that Martin tones down his relentless self-obsession — the songs aren’t heavy on lyrics and some are shockingly written in character — which is a development as welcome as the expanded sonic palette. Martin’s refined writing topics may be outpaced by the band’s guided adventure but they’re both indicative that the band is desperate to not just strive for the title of great band — a title they seem to believe that they’re to the manor born — but to actually burrow into the explorative work of creating music. And so the greatest thing Coldplay may have learned from Eno is his work ethic, as they demonstrate a focused concentration throughout this tight album — it’s only 47 minutes yet covers more ground than X&Y and arguably A Rush of Blood to the Head — that turns Viva la Vida into something quietly satisfying.

'HARD CANDY' DELICIOUS NEW MADONNA ALBUM

SCHEDULED TO BE RELEASED ON WARNER BROS. RECORDS

Madonna's 11th studio album for Warner Bros. Records "HARD CANDY" had a global release on April 28th, 2008 and a US release on April 29th, 2008 it was confirmed by her label. "HARD CANDY" (the follow up to Madonna's "CONFESSIONS ON A DANCE FLOOR" which debuted at No. 1 in 30 countries and sold over 8 million copies), has been described as a brilliant up-tempo collection of 12 songs in which Madonna remains ensconced in club mode but this time adds an urban hip hop beat in collaboration with musical partners Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes and Nate "Danja" Hills. The debut single, the pulsating "4 Minutes" was released at the end of March.

"The title is a juxtaposition of tough and sweetness...kind of like I'm gonna kick your ass but it's going to make you feel good. And of course, I love candy" laughed the material girl.

Madonna, a multi-Grammy-award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, cultural icon, world renowned stage performer, video visionary, children's book author, director and documentary film maker has sold 200 million albums in the course of her unprecedented two decade plus career and is slated to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10th.

In Tribute: Al Wilson

On any list of underrated soul singers, Al Wilson has to rank near the top. Wilson, who died this past Monday of kidney failure at the age of 68, had one big hit in 1974 with “Show and Tell,” a peerless piece of smooth early ’70s soul that reached number one on the Billboard pop charts, in turn defining his career and suggesting that he was a one-hit wonder even though he followed it with a few hits over the next few years (”I Won’t Last a Day Without You/Let Me Be the One” in 1975, “I’ve Got a Feeling [We’ll Be Seeing Each Other Again]” in 1976). Like many seeming one-hit wonders, there was a lot more to Wilson than that one hit, and he never, ever stopped working — playing clubs and touring well beneath the radar of the mainstream, occasionally re-recording his hits (as he did on 2001’s Spice of Life), because that’s what you do when you’re a working musician. It’s unfortunate that all this hard work didn’t pay off in some kind of full-scale revival prior to his death, something like Arthur Alexander received before his death in 1993, since Wilson’s rich, nuanced singing — akin to a grittier Lou Rawls — deserved wider acclaim. What’s doubly sad is that there is a new CD out that showcases precisely why he’s worthy of such celebration. Kent, a division of the UK-based Ace Records, has just released Searching for the Dolphins, the first reissue of Al Wilson’s earliest recordings, containing all of his 1968 debut for Soul City records, Searching for the Dolphins, along with a bunch of singles he had for that label, Bell, and Carousel in the early ’70s.

“Show and Tell” is not on this disc — for that and his other ’70s singles, turn to Fuel 2000’s 2004 set Show & Telll: The Best of Al Wilson — but its absence is in a way a blessing, as it forces focus on Wilson’s depth as a singer and how these recordings are quite unlike a lot of soul of the time. Part of the reason for that is the presence of Johnny Rivers, the LA blue-eyed soul singer who signed Wilson to his own Soul City imprint and produced Searching for the Dolphins, encouraging Wilson to pursue a lush sound that encompassed mellow Californian pop, folk, jazz, rock & roll, and soul, something that was sonically closer to what Rivers was cutting at the time, but hardly a pop sellout. After all, one of the highlights here is Wilson’s first single (and only UK hit), a hip, swinging version of Oscar Brown Jr.’s “The Snake,” a groovy dance number that deservedly became a Northern Soul staple; it’s not the only funky moment here, as it has a rival in a version of Holland/Dozier/Holland’s “Shake Me Wake Me (When It’s Over).” Also on this album is a slow-burning, late-night reading of Jerry Butler/William Butler/Curtis Mayfield’s “I Stand Accused” and the terrific “Who Could Be Lovin’ You (Other Than Me),” an early Willie Hutch song that strikes a precise balance between the aforementioned funky moments and the luxurious singer/songwriter material that comprises the rest of the record. The title song is an allusion to the Fred Neil ’60s standard “The Dolphins” and Wilson also sings two Jimmy Webb songs (”By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Do What You Gotta Do”) and a pair of Johnny Rivers hits (”Summer Rain,” “Poor Side of Town”), all of which have a smooth, rolling feel as reminiscent of folk-pop as it is as soul. All taken together, Searching for the Dolphins is a unique record, a place where many divergent strands in ’60s pop converge in a way that is perhaps easier to appreciate now than it is then.

As good as this album proper is, the Kent/Ace CD gets really interesting on the bonus tracks, almost all of which are considerably less soft than the LP itself. Sometimes this does mean harder, funkier sides, as on a pair of Willie Hutch tunes from 1967, “When You Love (You’re Loved Too)” and “Now I Know What Love Is.” (Hutch also is responsible for folkier, poppier “Getting’ Ready for Tomorrow, a ‘68 single with nearly baroque harpsichords that’s closer in feel to Searching for the Dolphins than anything else here.) Sometimes, this hardness means that Wilson dips into down-n-dirty rock & roll, as on a phenomenal version of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Lodi” from 1969 that has a thicker groove than CCR’s original, filled with greasy slide guitars and horns. This isn’t the only time Wilson rocks it hard: he bizarrely replicates Dave Edmunds’ version of “I Hear You Knockin’,” right down to the phased vocals, slide guitars, piano punctuations, and exultations of ’50s rockers in the solo section (funnily enough, he leaves out Smiley Lewis, who had the original hit with this), and even more bizarrely, it works, as Wilson invests this blatant steal with down-home soul A better example of his daring is “Sugar Cane Girl,” a Daniel Cohen song that rocks as hard as CCR, while being funkier. It’s a hell of a song and a lost gem, but it’s also clear why this and “Lodi” didn’t click at the time — they’re fully rock and fully soul, so they didn’t fit comfortably in either format. More of their time was the dirty fuzz funk of “Falling in Love with You” and “Bachelor Man,” a quite wonderful evocation of swinging singledom in the early ’70s thanks to its cascade of strings and harpsichords, all adding up to a loungey vibe scaled toward television. These didn’t sell either, but hearing them next to the driving rock & roll, the jazzy northern soul, the deep soul, and the sun-bleached folk-pop found elsewhere on this disc, it becomes clear that Al Wilson was capable of singing anything; he just didn’t catch the right breaks that would bring him to the top with these singles. Once he did, just a couple years later, he didn’t stay at the top long enough to truly show his versatility. Still, anybody that has now heard of Al Wilson due to his passing should seek this set out, as it proves that he was a superb soul singer who cut music worthy of his talents. The rest of the world is still getting around to realizing just how good this guy was.

Satyagraha at the Met

Philip Glass’ Satyagraha is nearly thirty years old, and it’s proving to be one of his most durable creations. Metropolitan Opera director Peter Gelb calls it Glass’ greatest opera, a masterpiece, and based on the impact it makes in the Met’s vibrant new production, co-produced with the English National Opera, it’s hard to disagree. Satyagraha is a Sanskrit word meaning “truth force,” or “strength through truth,” which Gandhi coined while living in South Africa between 1893 and 1914, working for equality for the country’s Indian population. The philosophy of non-violent resistance that Gandhi and his followers practiced became the model for many of the most successful liberation movements of the twentieth century. The opera focuses on six pivotal events in Gandhi’s life during that period, preceded by a scene from Hindu mythology. The scenes are not arranged chronologically, and the opera’s Sanskrit text, taken from the Bhagavad Gita by Constance de Jong, consists of philosophical reflections rather than dialogue, so the opera obviously doesn’t conform to conventional narrative structure. Each carefully constructed scene makes sense as a dramatic unit, though, and the effect of the whole is powerful.In this production, director Phelim McDermott and associate director and designer Julian Crouch tweak or forego some of Glass’ original stage directions, and the success of their alternate vision is a testimony to the opera’s durability — this is a work that can stand up to a variety of interpretations. Most significantly, they’ve ignored Glass’ original conceit that the events of the opera transpire in a single day, from dawn until night. This production begins in darkness and ends with a bright blue sky. It’s a political statement and an optimistic assessment of the world, given the fact that Gandhi’s vision of peace is so far from being realized, but it’s all the more poignant because it points to the fact that his message is no less needed today than it was a century ago.

The stage design is very much integrated with the opera’s concern for the liberation of the poor. The primary materials of the set are corrugated iron and newspaper. Instead of using flashy stage effects, the directors have many of the opera’s most memorable moments created by Skills Ensemble, a troupe of actors, puppeteers and acrobats who use newspaper, straw baskets and clear tape to construct settings as well as gigantic animals and human figures.
Each of the three acts is presided over by a figure who inspired or was inspired by Gandhi’s philosophy — Tolstoy in the first act, Rabindranath Tagore in the second, and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the third. For most of the opera, the back of the stage is lined with panels of corrugated iron, creating an atmosphere of poverty and virtual imprisonment, in which Gandhi and his followers work out their strategies of liberation. In the final act, we see prophetic images of the American civil rights movement, with police in riot gear savagely beating peaceful protesters, and Gandhi’s followers being arrested and led away. The iron panels drift away, revealing an expansive bank of roiling gray clouds. Gandhi remains onstage in front of a huge pillar at the top of which King, his back to the audience, is preaching to unseen crowds. Accompanied by some of Glass’ most serene and ethereal music, Gandhi goes up to the pillar and touches it, as if in benediction. The sky turns to brilliant blue and the clouds begin to dissipate — it’s a genuinely breathtaking moment. It’s spoiled a little when an image of Gandhi’s followers is projected onto the sky, presumably listening to King, (a detail that actually is in the libretto), but mercifully it doesn’t last long. In spite of that misstep, the final moments of the opera are a satisfying resolution of the struggles that preceded them.

The most frequent complaint about Glass’ music is that it’s too repetitive, and on a superficial level it can sound like the same thing over and over. On closer listening, though, Glass is in fact continually shifting the details of orchestration, meter, and dynamics so that the music is in a constant state of flux, giving it a larger architectural complexity. When allied with the apparent sameness of the surface, this complexity creates a synthesis of principles analogous to satyagraha’s combination of the principles of truth and strength. This deep structural connection between Glass’ music and the opera’s theme makes the subject the perfect vehicle for the composer’s aesthetic vision, and is one of the elements that gives the opera its emotional impact and sense of integrity.

One of the wonders of Glass’ score is the degree of expressiveness he’s able to evoke through the use of repeated patterns and very simple gestures. The twenty-minute opening scene is accompanied entirely by the repetitions of a four-chord progression, but the emotional range of the scene is huge, from the quiet serenity that opens and closes it to the furious raging of battling armies at its climax. Another example of the expressive depth of Glass’ apparent simplicity is Kasturbai’s solo at the beginning of the third act. It consists of exactly two pitches, a whole step apart, but in the composer’s rhythmically shifting text setting and poignant harmonies, it sounds like a soaring aria. Glass may be working within the restraints of a narrowed set of musical parameters and an unconventional narrative structure, but with Satyagraha, he has created an opera with the breadth of feeling, dramatic power, and emotional resonance to merit a place in the standard repertoire.

The difficulty of its music is a serious obstacle to it ever becoming a repertory work, however. Satyagraha is Glass’ first “real” opera, coming after Einstein on the Beach, which he had written for his own devoted (and small) ensemble of new music specialists, and the demands on the orchestra and chorus are staggering. It’s not a question of technical difficulty, because in small increments, the music isn’t generally hard, but it requires an almost superhuman level of sustained concentration that most orchestras and choruses aren’t used to. It’s the rhythmic element that’s the killer — its constantly changing meters of nearly-but-not-quite identical patterns are fiendishly difficult to keep track of. For the chorus, which has an unusually large role in this opera, there’s the added element of having it memorized, as well singing in a difficult language that has no relationship to any European language. Much credit goes to Chorus Master Donald Palumbo for his thorough preparation; the chorus sang with crispness and intensity, and with careful attention to details of dynamics. At the April 14 performance, in the first scene of the second act, the men’s treacherous laughing chorus threatened to teeter out of control, but a few brave souls hung tight and soon everyone was back on course. Dante Anzolini, making his Met debut in this production, led the orchestra of strings and winds in a luminous performance; he was absolutely clear in his beat, but he also had the flexibility to let the music breathe. His tempos in the slow sections tended to be especially broad, all to good effect. The last act, particularly, in which all the stage action is enacted in slow motion, benefited from his expansive approach; there were transcendent stretches where time felt suspended.

Except for the role of Gandhi, this is not a showpiece opera for singers, so it was not a star packed production. Tenor Richard Croft was a fully persuasive as Gandhi; he could both command attention with the kind of charisma Gandhi was known for, and blend seamlessly into the crowd of workers. He sang with admirable purity and intensity, and with a burnished warmth that made the character appealing. Other standouts included baritone Earle Patriarco as an especially resonant and stalwart Mr. Kallenbach, and soprano Rachel Durkin as Miss Schlesen. The last act duet with mezzo Maria Zifchak as Kasturbai, Gandhi’s wife, and soprano Ellie Dehn as Mrs. Naidoo, was radiant, one of the highlights of the evening.

Even if you’re not in New York, there’s a chance to hear a performance. Satyagraha will be aired on the Met’s Saturday broadcast this week at 1:30.

Distributing music independently online

"What is a viable business model for distributing music independently via the Internet?"

Klaus HeymannChairman, Naxos Group of Companies

Independent labels have several options when it comes to distributing their recordings online.
Regardless of what option they choose, a label should create its own digital files (WAV files that can be converted into other formats) and its own meta data -- it's not rocket science and a label knows its own content better than any third party.

Nowadays, it is very important to coordinate digital and physical marketing and advertising. Therefore, if a label has good physical distribution internationally, it should first try to work through its own network of distributors, provided they have the necessary experience and the right connections with their national digital service providers.

National distributors can create meta data in their local language, which is essential in markets such as Japan, South Korea, France, Germany and Spain/Latin America. Their distributors also know which albums to promote, or they can create special digital compilations aimed at their market.

If a label does not have good physical distribution, or if its distributors are not active in digital distribution, it must determine whether or not to use one or more aggregators (digital distributors).

Before making that decision, it is important to analyze which digital service providers (download sites) can actually sell the label's recordings. While aggregators can push content to a large number of digital service providers (DSPs), only relatively few may be able to actually sell the label's recordings, and the label may actually be able to deliver its content to these DSPs itself.

Otherwise, the label should look for specialized aggregators, which either specialize in the kind of music the label is selling or which cover specific territories. It might make sense, for example, to use one aggregator for North America and other English-speaking markets; another for French-speaking markets; another for Spain and Spanish Latin America; etc.

Some international aggregators are now setting up offices in overseas markets to establish better relations with local DSPs, but that's still very rare.

Working with different aggregators or supplying content directly to 10 or 20 DSPs may not be easy, but a label should only give its catalog to a single worldwide aggregator as a last resort -- it's like handing your worldwide physical distribution to a single exporter.

And even if a label works through an aggregator, it should still involve its national distributors so that they can benefit from or contribute to the digital marketing.

Klaus HeymannChairman, Naxos Group of Companies