One of the most original and mesmerising live performances on earth is headed for Brisbane. The Manganiyar Seduction is a visually and musically stunning masterpiece, where 40 musicians from three generations of Manganiyars perform in a 36-windowed ‘jewel box’, with the songs slowly building to giddying heights.  Celebrating the music of the Manganiyars, a caste of desert musicians from the heart of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, The Manganiyar Seduction will be performed twice at QPAC.

The Manganiyar Seduction was first created to open the Delhi Film Festival in 2006. It’s rousing success, incredible originality and intense musicality has seen it tour the globe ever since. The project allowed Director Roysten Abel to collaborate with the Manganiyar musicians for the first time, with the concept a dazzling union between the Manganiyar’s music and the visual seduction of Amsterdam’s red light district. The set is a combination of the Hawa Mahal Palace in Jaipur and the red light district, and is often compared to a jewel box.

Forty musicians are seated in 36 red-curtained cubicles arranged in four horizontal rows one on top of the other; and the concert begins when a single cubicle lights up and the first singer begins his song. Soon another cubicle lights up and then another thus creating a dramatic and astounding build-up of musical instruments and voice as these extraordinary Manganiyar musicians transport audiences to another world.

As the ensemble grows in number and the sound gathers momentum, the skin-prickling climax is heralded by a sumptuous light show as all the pods glow and pulsate along with the musical rhythms in an extraordinary original concept, brilliantly executed.