Cultural firsts promised at Al Ain music festival

Abu Dhabi: The eighth Al Ain Classical Music Festival will feature some cultural firsts in the region, including a UAE orchestra.

The festival which has traditionally focused on Al Ain and was restricted to three days, will now run for 11 days, from March 6 until March 16.

Held under the patronage of Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister, it includes the region's first Arabic performance of Mozart's Don Giovani opera performed by a cast of opera singers from Lebanon accompanied by 63 artists from the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.

It will also feature the first Wagner concert recording made in the Arab world when Sony TV records a concert by Staatskapelle Dresden, one of the world's longest established orchestras and ranked among the world's top five, under the direction of its principal conductor, the world-renowned Fabio Luisi.

The orchestra, however, is made up of 70 members residing in the UAE.

World class

"The Al Ain Classical Music Festival has now come of age and will this year send a signal to music lovers everywhere of our intention to develop a world-class event which will eventually rank among the most acclaimed, such as the Salzburg Music Festival," said Khalaf Al Mazrouei, Director- General, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage (ADACH).

Festival performances will be held across five venues, Al Ain's historic Al Jahili Fort, the town's Municipality Theatre and Emirates Palace, the National Theatre and the ADMA- OPCO Theatre in Abu Dhabi.

The festival will kick off at Al Ain's Municipality Theatre with the Arabian Gulf's first Arabic performance of Mozart's Don Giovani opera. Concerts are free of charge except for the Opera, Don Giovani and the Staatskapelle Dresden which have limited seating. Tickets for the two paid performances are available online at www.timeouttickets.com