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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 July 2000 Issue No. 490 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 July 2000 Issue No. 490
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Focus International Economy Opinion Interview Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Brave and flighty
By David Blake
Cairo Opera Company and Orchestra, Gala Concert, celebration of 25 years of the television programme of the sound of music. Operas and musicals, conductors Mustafa Nagui and Sherif Mohieddin, Cairo Opera House Main Hall, 5 July
Hush, hush. There are stars around. Everyone knows the mother of us all has a "thing" about local stars. She cares not for them, preferring the undisturbed surface which stars destroy with their stronger personalities. Thanks to Samha El-Khouli, whose work and total unselfish devotion to the Cairo Opera of music could never be denied, the pages were wide open and the Cairo songbirds gave her the night of their lives. Each and every bird did her best to put themselves and the Old Place, that rather wobbly Palace of Song, the beloved Cairo Opera, on a firm basis.
They sang. And how? They belted, they crooned and swooped. They gave so much they made the old place the arena it is supposed to be, a home of song, opera, lieder and musicals. Does anyone really love the word "culture" here?
Everyone loves or hates it, but anyway the opera is often bruised by the critics. They say it is not in the culture, not understood and we have no part in the old colonialist grand opera. And so the old place got warmed up. No matter what they say, there is nothing like an opera house. And when you have one, use it.
So it is all for real -- people do stress and strain to become opera singers, though they are part of the crowd, cheering and shrieking too. Young people are worth all the money and trouble needed to make them opera singers. Cairo does have an opera house, and it is suitably noisy and triumphant on occasions. (The Ballo in Maschera, a month ago, was one such occasion.)
Never let it be forgotten that the old place is worth all the fuss and more. It is only just beginning its career. Its gorgeous stage gives a showplace which few opera houses in any part of the world can match. Classical ballet dance theatre -- all so good. But there is nothing like a singer, whether it be Mozart or Gershwin. What they say and how they say it about this opera house doesn't really matter, the feeling and the mood is the thing.
This concert was a battle of generosity and effort -- "Push it and be damned." This place will sink or swim by song, and it is worthy. Even the snap-dragons and brave petunias positively solicit your attention as you pass into the auditorium. So it seems with the Cairo Opera -- often sleeping, out of touch, and falling dangerously into the deep shrug of indifference.
But just beneath the surface, it has the same continuity and survival as the adorable faces of the flowers in the garden. The birds were out. El-Khouli was present in the audience and, like her, the opera was indefatigable. In spite of the pitfalls and manipulations, it is all your house -- my house, my home. These new people did think of this, and represented a new generation, remembering an old song, "Come alonga my house.". It was a song of night.
Samha EL-Khlouli
The show was in two sections. First half: arias and duets from opera. An interval. Then what was called the Musicals, songs and scenes ripped mostly out of Broadway. The West End, Broadway and Berlin have, since the latter part of the 19th century, produced most of the hits; and they all got a plugging, this night, worthy of their fame. Some sort of inspiration blew through the opera, which lifted up the whole show, blowing it along at a high speed of excitement.
Arias and duets. The opera section began with Carmen, and Gaber Beltagui's version of the "Toreador Song was gentler than most. It was no mach chopper but appealing because witty. It bustled along, moving to the "Visi d'arte" of Puccini's Tosca and her deadly encounter with the wicked fascinator, big baritone Scarpia.
No Scarpia tonight unfortunately, but here on centrestage was Tosca herself -- Iman Mustafa, naturally. Tosca is one of the ghosts of allurement the Cairo Opera House constantly waves before our eyes to whet our appetites. Its music, youth, splendour and wit hold out enormous pleasures. It is promised -- but sadly never appears. Iman Mustafa's presence holds out hopes of a revival. She is showing signs of endless work on her voice. It is now suave, often firm, clear and beautiful. Maybe the night will come. We need adorable Floria and it is high time she took her jump off the top of Hadrian's tomb down to the Tiber.
Hossam Mustafa continued the baritonal ring that was this concert's thread. He was high, wide and handsome, fearless and adept with respect to all of Rossini's voice traps of The Barber of Seville. Then Tahiya Shamseddin, doing Juliet's waltz song from Gounod's Romeo and Juliet, was a hit. She took her time placing the notes. Her Juliet was stylish, but hardly warm. Maybe it would've been better to give her something heavier to suit her voice in its present state. Then came the baritonal bass of the night, Reda El-Wakil. One more of Cairo's invincible ghosts, he looked and sounded right for his Don Giovanni. When he comes on, we all hear and see the unforgettable early Don on the cruise which he did some years ago.
Came the other high baritone of the Opera, Abdel-Wahab El-Said, partnered by Tahiya Shamseddin. These two young people held out endless possibilities in the new Don Giovanni. She is Donna Anna these days, no longer Susanna.
Walid Korayim did his best to float "O Sole Mio," but his is not basically an Italianate voice. He would've done better to sing Wagner's "Traume" -- gold not needed, bronze is the thing for him. For Musetta's little sad song from the second act of Puccini's La Boèhme, came Nabila Erian. Puccini specialised in the tone of morbidezza, which is not morbid at all but elegaic. The sad sounds of lost innocence and regret, delicately tinctured by Puccini's beautiful colours, suited Nabila Erian. She made a still, small poem of the piece, so often treated like a circus jig. Don't ask me why I weep, says this Musetta who sounded like Toti Dal Monte, the renowned diva. What a butterfly Nabila Erian must have been.
Jihan Fayed once sang Tourandot in Giza. In this Liu scene, another person altogether, you can see why she sang it. She was a grandly expansive voice suggesting authority. In Tourandot she was great. As Liu, the servant girl, she lacked the poor slave girl touch, but on this occasion the voice rang out proudly.
It left Iman Mustafa and Walid Korayim to drink our health in Violetta's champaign in the "Brindisi" from the first act of Verdi's La Traviata, and bring the curtain on Act One.
Second half -- the Musicals. Blue, black and gold are the college colours of Broadway, from whose musicals most of the second half of the programme was made up. Singing The Sound of Music is not easy after what it has been through in film, theatre and records. It has been sent up almost since its creator sang it. So Jaqueline Rafik was taking it easy when she began the famous swoops. Successfully making your way through the tricky waters of Rogers and Hammerstein is no easier than getting it right in Verdi. The problems are different but the needs are the same, you must know your way through the professional, highly complicated music that they have written. Broadway is as professional as La Scala, Milan. Jaqueline Rafik knows the way. And in the end, as the juice gets thicker, the gas pedal must be pressed or the seats will not be sold -- she lets it out. That is really how the party went off in special style. All the singers knew their style and how to push it through.
Amira Selim burst through the orchestra with "I Could Have Danced All Night" and gave a true star show. She looked marvelous -- long arms, elegant gestures, full-voiced and with that really direct warmth Broadway demands from a singer. She brought the house down and turned it into fantasy.
And came another star show, she almost slid on stage, grey clothes and the throw-away apologetic manner -- Nevine Allouba as Evita. This was great. She spelled out the long wandering recitation of a short incredible life with the absolutely withering deadly sweetness Edith Piaf could use -- all those deadly sins we love to hear about.
Next Ashraf Sewailam and Raouf Zaidan in Cole Porter's "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" -- a complete change. The Old Empire Music Hall, Liecester Square suited the boys, and they did a snap-quick turn as Vesta Tilly as Burlington Berty. They also brought the house down; never was such applause witnessed in Cairo.
From Les Miserables' "I Dreamed a Dream", Hala El-Shabouri and the full orchestra sent forth premadonna terms worthy of the Roxy Cinema of New York.
It was interesting to hear what the singers of the Opera House can really do when they are challenged or have a party as they did on this evening. "All I Ask of You" from The Phantom of the Opera with Jaqueline Rafik and Elhamy Amin showed a brilliant, clear, young baritone with a romantic timbre. Both young artists carried the duet to a grand ending. The Cairo Opera had become the Palace Theatre, London.
Coming all the way from Evita to Cats' "Memory" was not beyond Nevine Allouba but she cried better for Argentina.
The Phantom struck again, and for the last time, in this very happy concert. Amira Selim became the lone star of the evening sky, accompanied by a powerful tenor, Tamer Tawfik.
Stamping, shouting, the place ended swirling to applause and enjoyment. Everyone sang, everyone screamed. The audience, for once, was listening to the stage opera house, to everything and everyone. Like water, like the Nile, the audience go on stamping forever. So like Pirandello's theatre magic, the opera turned renversé. We applauded each other with love. The stage is all yours, the opera's voice came. Curtain till next time.
