Houston Grand Opera’s River of Light Premieres at Sri Meenakshi Temple

PEARLAND: The red and purple color scheme present in every prop on the stage, transformed the auspicious Kalyana Mandapam (KM) at Sri Meenakshi Temple into the scene for the afternoon’s premier event. It was 3pm on Saturday March 23, and around 600 people gathered at Sri Meenakshi Temple KM auditorium for the world premiere of River of Light, a Houston Grand Opera production. Over the course of 45 minutes, the audience sat rapped at the edge of their seats, listening to a blend of East and West – literally through the chamber ensemble’s composition of a tabla, sitar, violin, cello, and piano instruments – and figuratively in the story’s plot. The music composer Jack Perla’s often dramatic scores provided an ideal canvass, weaving the backdrop to the contemporary story of yearning for an old culture, as the main protagonist integrates into the new. Intermingled into the music scores were the popular and soulful compositions such as Raghupathy Ragava and Shri Ramacandra kripalu bhaju mana that added an air of mystic and far away culture.

River of Light is Houston Grand Opera’s final presentation of the 8 East + West series and the first of HGO’s fusion full-length opera having an Indian theme. The libretto (text) was written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, a Houston-based Indian-American author and poet whose 2 prior novels (The Mistress of Spices and Sister of My Heart) have been adapted into films. The opera traced the dilemma faced by a newlywed and successful executive Meera (played by Maya Kherani) in passing on the Indian culture and heritage to her daughter. The celebration of victory of good over evil, as signified by the Indian Light festival of Diwali brought the final scene of the Opera to a standing ovation from the crowd.

Felicitating the HGO cast and crew, Pearland Mayor Tom Reid remarked on Houston’s journey to be a preeminent US city for cultural and artistic diversity, through performances such as the HGO’s River of Light; adding that his own city of Pearland gets the first credit as the site of the host theater in Meenakshi temple! As the HGO Programs Director Brittany Duncan remarked in thanking Sri MTS, it would hardly have been possible to find a better and more celebratory way to welcome this new opera into the world than at Sri Meenakshi temple. Following the captivating Opera, an excellent cultural program celebrating the spring festival Holi was presented on stage to an engaging audience.

For further information on cultural events please contact www.Meenakshi.org