MUMBAI: Marking the beginning of ‘Voyage to India’ concerts, renowned Indian classical artistes will be a part of scintillating array of performances lined up by the Royal Opera House Muscat in its third season.

Commencing from 12 September, the season will feature four Indian concerts and musicals depicting diversity of the sub-continent’s classical music heritage. The series titled ‘Voyage to India’ will start with the ‘Nine Jewels of India presenting Panchtatva’, which is a multimedia musical on the five elements of nature.

The show will unite music luminaries like vocalist Pandit Jasraj, flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, sitar star Niladri Kumar, ghatam player T H Vikku Vinayakram, kanjira expert Selva Ganesh, Shridhar Parthasarathy on the mridangam and tabla players Ramkumar Mishra and Yogesh Samsi.

The concert series will also witness back to back performances of multi-faceted Durga Jasraj who will weave together unique complementary musical segments on 17-18 September. The musical segments will create a moving reflection on the fragility of the environment.

Renowned Indian director Roysten Abel will also bring together musicians from the deserts of Rajasthan for a musical production ‘The Manganiyar Seduction by Roysten Abel’, which will be staged in the concert series from 29-30 November.

Featuring 43 musicians, the musical will fuse Amsterdam’s night visuals with the energetic sound of the Manganiyars — a caste of Muslim musicians from India’s Thar Desert.

Voyage to India’ concerts series will extend till next year, where in renowned musician and composer Zakir Hussain will headline India’s first professional orchestra, ‘The Symphony Orchestra of India’ on 25-26 February 2013.  Conducted by Zane Dalal, the orchestra will feature music director and violinist Marat Bisengaliev, banjo player Béla Fleck and bassist Edgar Meyer. The Mumbai-based orchestra founded in 2006 has earned acclaim for its performance at the fifth festival of the World’s Symphony Orchestras in Moscow.

The voyage will conclude with the performance of legendary Indian violinist and composer Dr L Subramaniam on 6-7 March 2013.

The third season of Royal Opera House Muscat will conclude on 24 April 2013. The season will showcase famous operas like La Boh?me, Simon Boccanegra and Madama Butterfly to the spectacular soloists Jessye Norman, Roberto Alagna and Joshua Bell. It will also include performances by celebrated artistes like Arab lute songs by Safwan Bahlawan and Ahmed Fathi,  ‘The Music Man and  Evenings of dance by Paul Taylor Dance Company’, a festival of a cappella music, ‘A Stravinsky Ballet Evening’ and ‘Ballet Folklórico de México’.