THE MANGANIYAR SEDUCTION Premieres At Lincoln Center's White Light Festival 11/17

Indian director Roysten Abel, founder of the Indian Shakespeare Company, and director of such productions as the award-winning Othello a play in black and white and The Spirit of Anne Frank, makes his U.S. directing debut at Lincoln Center's upcoming White Light Festival with the U.S. premiere of The Manganiyar Seduction-a stunning musical performance by 38 bardic Muslim minstrels from northern India-at the Rose Theater on November 17 and 18. A graduate of Delhi's National School of Drama who trained with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Abel links the sacred and the sensual as the musicians, led by conductor Daevo Khan, perform in a mesmerizing set design which was inspired by both the women's quarters of Hawa Mahal (a royal palace in Jaipur) and the red light district of Amsterdam.

Tickets, priced at $80, 55, 45, 35 and 25, are available at the Avery Fisher, Alice Tully Hall and Rose Theater (two weeks prior to the performances only) box offices, through CenterCharge at 212.721.6500, or on the Lincoln Center website at WhiteLightFestival.org

The Manganiyar Seduction opens on a dark stage lit by myriad lights outlining four layers of boxes, stacked one atop another, on a concave wall. Soon, a curtain opens to reveal a mustachioed musician, clad in a white dhoti and "angarkha" (short traditional Rajasthani jacket), topped by a red turban, sitting cross-legged in a red velvet cubicle framed by dressing-room lights. The latter brighten as the man starts to sing, slowly and softly. Then, another curtain opens revealing another, similarly dressed, musician who picks up the melody as he too is highlighted. Before long, they are followed by others, each in his own cubicle, singing or playing a stringed or percussion instrument typical of Rajasthani folk music: kama?chas, dhols, sarangis, dholaks and kartals. As all 38 musicians begin playing together, each in his own cubicle, a "conductor" appears onstage. With arms raised and castanet-like kartals clacking in each hand, he seems to lead the group and co-ordinate the flashing lights while dancing around stage with youthful energy through the rest of the 75-minute performance.

The inaugurAl White Light Festival (WhiteLightFestival.org) takes place from October 28 through November 18, 2010 and will explore the spiritual manifestations of music's transcendent power spanning different cultural traditions. Over 22 days, the festival will include 21 performances as well as panel discussions, a sound-art installation, and pre- and post-performance talks. The festival will also include a number of White Light Lounges, post-performance receptions exclusive to White Light Festival ticketholders for performers and concertgoers. There will be 12 world, U.S., and New York premieres and debuts by artists and companies from Belgium, China, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, India, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S.

The festival includes performance of Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem featuring the Dresden Staatskapelle and the Westminster Choir led by Daniel Harding; and the U.S. premiere of Sutra, a modern dance work by acclaimed Belgian/Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Other festival highlights include: Judith an adaptation of 16th-century Croatian poet Marko Maruli?'s poem of the Biblical tale of Judith, set to Dalmatian music of the era, reconstructed by singer/musicologist Katarina Livlijani?; concerts by Meredith Monk, the Tallis Scholars, Collegium Vocale Gent, Latvian National Choir, Kremerata Baltica, The Hilliard Ensemble and Jan Garbarek, organist Paul Jacobs, and more.

The Manganiyars are native to India's most colorful state in the northern desert on the Pakistani border. Originally Hindu shepherds and cowherds, these nomads converted to Islam centuries ago. But, maintaining their roots and rituals, they continued to sing devotional songs to Hindu deities for wealthy Hindu merchants in caravan towns. Invited to celebrate a marriage or childbirth in a family, they sang songs of praise for the patron's lineage in his home. Out of deep undying loyalty, they never sang for others, never in a public place.

Abel first encountered them when a friend took him to a Delhi slum that housed artists and artisans. In search of folk musicians for a play that he was taking to Spain, he found two Manganiyars who agreed to accompany him. To his amazement, they followed him all around Segovia, serenading him from dawn to midnight, wherever he went for two weeks. "I was transformed by that experience," Abel recalls, "not just spiritually but physiologically. That inspired this production."

Traveling across Rajasthan, Abel auditioned nearly a thousand musicians to create his group. He learned that although they are devotees of the Sufi saint Abdul Qadar Jilani, their homes have Hindu shrines. They may offer one prayer to their Muslim patron saint, then another to the female Hindu saint Rani Bhatiani. Their impact on Abel, a secular Protestant Christian From India's southernmost state of Kerala, was startling. He has said, "What I experienced was a whirlwind spiral effect. It was like being taken through a hurricane to a high point and left in a place of extreme calmness."

Roysten Abel graduated from the National School of Drama in 1994 and then apprenticed with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He returned to India in 1995 and founded the Indian Shakespeare Company. In 1999, Abel devised and directed Othello a play in black and white, his first original work, which won The Scotsman's Fringe First award and toured extensively around the world. He followed with a spate of original works which he conceived and directed, some produced in India and some in Europe. He then worked with out-of-work street performers (magicians, jugglers, impersonators, snake charmers, acrobats, musicians, and puppeteers), which got noticed in Italy, where he was invited to conceive and direct a play based on the life of Fellini (in Rimini, Fellini's hometown). Abel recently finished his latest production-2000 folk artists performing at the historic Red Fort in New Delhi. He is creating an International Contemporary Folk Center in Jaisalmer, which should be finished by 2012, and is currently working on The Manganiyar War, an interpretation of the Mahabharata through music.

Support for White Light Festival is provided by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, The Florence Gould Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., The Shubert Foundation, Logicworks, The Winston Foundation, Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, Great Performers Circle, Chairman's Council, and Friends of Lincoln Center.

Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.

Corporate support is provided by BNY Mellon.

Endowment support for Symphonic Masters is provided by the Leon Levy Foundation.

Endowment support is provided by UBS.

Movado is an Official Sponsor of Lincoln Center, Inc.

Continental Airlines is the Official Airline of Lincoln Center, Inc.

MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center, Inc.

The White Light Festival is a presentation of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. (LCPA), which serves three primary roles: presenter of superb artistic programming, national leader in arts and education, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. As a presenter of more than 400 events annually, LCPA's programs include American Songbook, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Live From Lincoln Center. In addition, LCPA is leading a series of major capital projects on behalf of the resident organizations across the campus.

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