Butterfly by night

What Dubai does not need is another gimmicky themed city or village. Dubai lends itself to every whim and wish of its inhabitants but what about a little culture every once in a while.

Culture, unfortunately, cannot be forced or fabricated, it exists solely out of the overflow of a creative and intellectual human community. So, does Dubai have any culture? Does a fish need a bicycle?

Sunday best

Dubai has an overflow of bodies and buildings: culture, in my opinion, is something we've been deprived of. And so it was with bated breath that I donned my Sunday best and hot-footed it down to the Madinat Arena for a dose of much needed culture — in the form of Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly.

Judging by the mass of people being channelled to their designated seats, it looks like I'm not the only one itching for a shot of creativity.

Transcending

The show begins and the suspense seizes; Irina Krikunova and crew brought home a resounding first half delivery. The applause was deafening as the audience spilled out for the interval on a high.

And speaking of highs, the choruses in the first half transcended the walls of the Madinat Arena and scaled the sides of the Burj Al Arab before resonating into the azur Gulf.

Paisley pattern

The intervals were great stopgaps for chain-smokers, serial socialites and general people-watching. So that's what I did — people watched. Opera is widely regarded as an art that only the rich and regal can afford and appreciate. Absolute nonsense.

Well, okay, the majority of those primping and posing in their Laura Ashley paisley pattern dresses would probably fall into that catergory (or so they would have us believe). But I also noticed a young and trendy crowd swivelling and swooshing around their parents' knees.

Not to be deterred with the social status and freezing cold auditorium, I took my seat once more for part two.

Fire up

Second act continued in the same vein as the first: more heart-stopping duets and emotion riddled drama to raise the temperature in the room and fire up my imagination.

As the performance unfolded its wings and settled on stage, it took me back to my first operatic encounter as a nonchalant 16-year-old sent for a week of work experience at the Scottish National Opera House in Glasgow. All the big and “cool'' firms had been snapped up and this was my only chance to get out of school for a whole week — so I went.

Flickering flame

The architecture at the Opera House was from the Victorian era and culture oozed out of every boulder.

I squirmed hour after hour in the front row of the theatre as I was subjected to endless rehearsals of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. Finally, on day three, the crew rehearsed the chorus between Figaro and his fiancé — I was sold.

Although, taped up steps, plastic seats and steel trusses have now replaced elaborate and intricate Victorian decor, the quality of this performance was not compromised in any shape or form.

Eventually, Madame Butterfly came to her final resting place — a flickering flame that fuels the furnace and quenches our thirst in the heart of the desert.