Specialist to singers

Died: Dr Ardeshir (Eddie) Shiavax Khambata, 79, chief laryngologist to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera and the Royal College of Music London; on June 2, 2015 in Bombay following pancreatic cancer.
At the opening night of Suor Angelica at Opera Holland Park, soprano Rosalind Plowright dedicated her performance to Khambata, the "kind and caring man and great stalwart in the world of grand opera and medicine,” who had passed away the same day. As noted a condolence message from the lead singer’s husband J. Anthony Kaye, "Eddie played a huge part in Rosalind’s soprano life both as an outstanding surgeon and a dear friend. He was totally unique in that he could explain vocal anatomy in operatic terms and he was always so friendly and reassuring.” They considered him among their closest friends who were invited to their wedding in 1984.

Kaye further wrote, "I will never forget the night out we had following Rosalind’s last minute jump-in at Covent Garden to sing Aida with (Luciano) Pavarotti with Zubin Mehta conducting. Afterwards Eddie, Rosalind and I were invited to join Zubin at the Bombay Brasserie in London and we met so many illustrious people there… His move back to India was a loss to us here.”
The couple had specially sent him, at his request, a CD of Rosalind’s recital just three weeks prior to his demise which Khambata’s family recall him enjoying with "rapt attention” in his last days.
"I associate all opera with him and dearly love so much of it,” affirmed Khambata’s nephew Darius Khambata, erstwhile advocate general of Maharashtra recalling how his uncle gave him his first taste of opera in the early seventies with the (Renata) Tebaldi-(Carlo) Bergonzi La Bohème. "As a child I remember his singing on his annual visits to Bombay… With him I heard great performances at Covent Garden and Glyndebourne… He was steeped in the Italian tradition and he would recount stories of Italian singers with reverence and nostalgia… His favorite remained Verdi’s Otello…”
Besides Plowright other singers who had entrusted their vocal cords to Eddie’s care at his Harley Street consultancy were Victoria de Los Angeles, Nelly Miricuoi, Ghena Dimitrova, Jamie Macdougall, Bergonzi, Bruce Ford, Vladimir Chernov, Felicity Lott, Eva Turner, mentions Darius. "He was an exceptionally renowned ENT practitioner known world-wide as the "voice doctor of London,” wrote Parsiana subscriber Naval Patel of Mysore who urged us to give Khambata a fitting In Memoriam write-up.
"We spent many hours listening and arguing about singers, and when he passed away, it was very pleasant for me to hear from great singers like Plowright, Miricuoi, etc considering him absolutely indispensable, particularly when the throat went wrong,” wrote Khushroo Suntook, chairman of the National Centre for the Performing Arts who had known Eddie for over 60 years, frequently inviting him to their Khandala house and enjoying his hospitality in the UK thereafter. He recalled the agony of a well-known singer who many years ago felt a live insect in her ear a day prior to a performance. In desperation she phoned Eddie who advised her to shine a torch in her ear, which led the insect to fly out! "He will be sorely missed,” summed up Suntook.
"His generosity in many ways to the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation (MMMF) was invaluable and we will greatly miss the presence and friendship… (of this) endearing figure in the musical landscape of Bombay who came to live here after his retirement as consultant surgeon in London,” stated Mehroo Jeejeebhoy, founder trustee of the MMMF who admired his "incredible memory and his knowledge of music” and other subjects which was "staggering and inexhaustible.”

Khambata: gregarious gourmet

On his trips to Bombay "he used to ring and ask for an ingredient in one of our Glaxo cough syrups that he needed to take back with him… He found this very useful for treating divas with laryngitis,” recalled erstwhile managing director of Glaxo Burroughs Wellcome Homi Khusrokhan whose first meeting with Eddie was as a student in London when he had accompanied his sister Vera and brother-in-law Dr Farokh Udwadia to Eddie’s "beautifully kept house in Kent where we were treated to a gourmet lunch prepared entirely by Eddie whose second love in life after opera was cooking.”
Muncherji Cama, president of the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute (KRCOI) where Eddie too had served on the governing body and board of trustees, never ceased to be impressed by this "multifaceted personality who was a fountainhead of knowledge and an authority on every subject… His contribution to academia and knowledge of the Orient was phenomenal. He helped us a lot at the time of various seminars” organized by the KRCOI. Besides English, he was "very fluent in French, German, Italian, Spanish.” Fond of history, he was conversant with both Persian and English chronicles and enjoyed his study of genealogy too. During his last few years, he was very interested in traveling to the Far East and spent time in Bali and Indonesia. Speaking with authority on Batik art or garas, or his collection of old Chinese opium weights, Cama laughingly described him as "the ambassador of the Far East.” The brochure of the KRCOI seminar on South East Asia in January 2015 featured most photographs by Khambata.
Once Eddie started playing mahjong with Muncherji and his mother Banoo, he was a regular at their home and the "kind-hearted, generous, courteous, disciplined, punctual, helpful friend” would regale them with his wry intelligent humor. Although he would never impose on anyone’s area of expertise, sometimes his medical tips were more helpful than the specialist treating the patient, observed Cama. With his willingness to "experiment with every cuisine, it was unbelievable what he would conjure up. At every meal he raised the bar for the next one,” commented Cama.
Whilst Cama wished he had known Eddie as a child, London based independent researcher Farrokh Vajifdar who was Eddie’s neighbor and two years his junior, at Adenwala Lodge on Cumballa Hill nostalgically reminisced of "those happy, carefree times we shared in dear old Bombay…through to his early years in England after which we drifted away into our respective niches in life.” Besides enjoying their rounds of whist and cooking up 16-course fantasy banquets, "Eddie was from the first vastly talented in the fields of western art, music and literature,” affirmed Vajifdar, adding, "His wonderful facility with aquarelles (water colors) was astonishing; as a draftsman he was, in my estimation, unparalleled with his rapid and fluent lines exactly expressing what he had then in mind… An absolute masterpiece by any standards must be his brilliant drawing of his beloved paternal grandmother.
"His chosen instrument was the pianoforte, an upright around which we gathered to improvise some appalling lyrics to his accompaniment. Whilst hating scales practice, he could sight-read well enough to accompany his violinist elder brother Jehangir on occasional recitals. Eddie’s overriding passion, however, was the opera; many of their arias were the backbone of his vast 78s shellac collection. To him, I’m quite sure, I owe my own taste for opera and art song… It has been a real pleasure and precious privilege to have known the wonder that was Eddie.”
Yet another childhood friend was Bombay based ENT surgeon Dr Pilloo Hakim who remembered the artistic friend "always willing to help others and doing biology drawings for many of us in the Cathedral School bus… Having known him from those early days, through medical college and beyond, it was wonderful to see how he combined his love for art and music with his profession… Living in the UK, his summers were spent in Italy, being advisor for some of the great maestros.” After his retirement from medical practice, "his fondness for companionship led him to flit between London and Bombay, and finally settle in Bombay” in the last few years. Besides being "a great chef, his knowledge and love of the rarest of wines was phenomenal.”
In a communique by Malcolm Deboo, president of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe, Eddie was described as a "bachelor, bon viveur (whose)… lifelong interest in opera and a particular interest in singers gained him an international reputation.” His professional contributions were further highlighted: After his MBBS from the Grant Medical College Bombay, he earned Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons and became senior registrar at The London Hospital, consultant ENT surgeon at West Hill Hospital and Joyce Green Hospital, Dartford, Kent and Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup. Some of the insightful chapters he has authored are "Anatomy and Physiology of Voice Production – The Phenomenal Voice” that appeared in the book Music and the Brain; "Laryngeal disorders in Singers and Other Voice Users” in Diseases of the Ear, Nose and Throat; and "The Physiology of the Voice” in The Voice.
Hailing from an athornan family he was "a very staunch Zoroastrian who knew his religion, wore the sudreh-kusti and visited fire temples regularly,” mentioned Cama. Since he wanted to be cremated, Cama, being his executor, honored Eddie’s wish and as a special mark of respect for their trustee the KRCOI premises were used for his uthamna prayers.
The savant-surgeon is survived by his brother Jehangir.