At the opera
The National Arab Music Ensemble will present a three-part re-enactment of famous old songs performed by veteran Egyptian singers of the 1920s and '30s, tonight at the Opera's Main Hall. Lavish décor and old-fashioned costumes round out renditions of songs originally sung by such favourites as Abdel-Hayy Helmi, Saleh Abdel-Hayy and Mounira El-Mahdiya -- here channelled through singers like Ahmed Ibrahim and Syrian singer Iman Baqi.
The second part of the show's programme will feature veteran singer Soad Mohamed performing a selection of her old hits, such as Min Gheir Hobb (Without Love). The concert will conclude with performances by up-and-coming singers, among them Tamer Abdel-Nabi, Amira Ahmed, Rehab Amer and the promising Riham Abdel-Hakim. Now a familiar format, this type of recital appeared fairly recently, as part of the Arab Music Festival. Today's performance is the first time to include this style in the ensemble's regular programme.
At the podium
A series of lectures on archaeological and historic sites in Egypt is being organised by the Egyptian Cultural Club starting 13 January. Prominent academics and antiquities officials such as Zahi Hawwas, director of the Giza Plateau; Hussein Mohamed Ali, head of the restoration department at the University of Minya and Nadia Loqma, head of the restoration department at the Egyptian Museum, will speak on well-known sites from Cairo to the churches of North Sinai, as well as art, religion and science in the ancient world.
This week's lecture on the monuments of Al-Mu'izz Lidin Illah Al-Fatimi Street will be given by Shahinda Karim, a professor at the American University in Cairo, on Wednesday, 13 January, at 7.00pm. The lecture series will run until 30 June. Egyptian Cultural Club, 1 Osiris St, next to Shepheard Hotel; Tel 586 2000.
Around the galleries
At the Safarkhan Gallery in Zamalek, works by the eminent late painter Abdel-Hadi El-Gazzar (1925-1966) are on display until 15 January, giving beleaguered art lovers a chance to sample a range of famous as well as lesser known classics, and delve once more into El-Gazzar's unique world. This is an experience to treasure: El-Gazzar's distinctive brand of grassroots conceptualisation -- drawing on heritage, myth and symbol -- is not only an absorbing visual experience but a vigorously artistic definition of Egyptian identity.
Reviewed by Nagwa El-Ashri
|
