It is now possible to enjoy watching one of the masterpieces of Giuseppe Verdi’s theater ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ in one of the Gulf states. The Arabian Gulf region has made good strides in appreciating and introducing the opera to the region. The word is derived from the Latin word ‘opus’, which means musical composition or a set of compositions.
When the opera was first introduced in 1598, it evolved in Germany (Scultz) and in France (Lullyl). Then, in the eighteenth century the opera spread further when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began a series of beautiful reviews, which formed the basic building block in the history of opera.
The Royal Opera House in Oman, which was inaugurated in October 2011, is in fact the first opera house ever built in the Gulf region.
Among the performers in the Opera House in Muscat include Cuba’s Paquito D’Rivera, Virtuoso Jazz and Latin classics, the Spanish flamenco artist Miguel Peña Vargas, ballet shows from Dusseldorf, as well as the Lebanese Marcel Khalife and Egypt’s Amal Maher, who are the first two to perform there from the Arab world.
Dubai is not a stranger to international music, as the Dubai Museum of Modern Art and Opera House will be launched in the near future. I wish Dubai would invite the Italian musician Riccardo Muti and Anne-Sophie Mutter to perform some of Beethoven’s wonderful work, in addition to presentations from the Arab world like Omar Khairat from Egypt and other famous Arab composers that have played a vital role in the world of music.
Similarly, Kuwait is heading in the same direction. However, I do not wish to go into the internal debate in Kuwait regarding the naming of the Opera House to a ‘Cultural and Social Centre’.
Although I definitely believe that the opera plays an important role in civilised societies, I would argue that by defining the Opera House as a ‘Cultural Centre’, it denounces the fact that the house was originally meant to be for the opera.
— The reader is a Saudi based in Manama, Bahrain.
Editor’s Note: Both Riccardo Muti and Anne-Sophie Mutter are expected to perform in the Capital next year as part of the Abu Dhabi Festival.
