14 - 20 February 2002
Issue No.573
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 14 - 20 February 2002 Issue No.573 |
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The singing thief
Christine von Knesebeck, a German playwright, came to visit me the other day to suggest the most interesting project. I gave my approval only half- heartedly, truth to tell, for the idea was very strange: that civil and passionate woman wanted to transform my novel The Thief and the Dogs into an opera.
She is based in Munich and married to an Egyptian, fairly well-known in German atrical circles. And she wants to use the Arabic text as the basis for her scenario and librettos. The idea, she explained, is to place the orchestra on-stage, like the choir in Greek tragedies: the opera, conceived along thoroughly modern lines, will be an hour and a half long and should be ready for next season, she explained. Can you imagine my surprise?
As for how the notion first came about, she told me a long story: Von Knesbeck and her husband made the acquaintance of a young Egyptian man, a very talented student of music, based in Salzburg. His name is Hossam Mahmoud, and his compositional prowess is such that they want to assign to him the task of composing the opera. And do I agree to all this?
I accepted half-heatedly, it is true, but I should say that such a project acquires special meaning in the light of current circumstances: it affirms the possibility of positive interaction between the Christian West and the Muslim East; culture, it implies, could provide a gateway to cooperation and understanding across difference.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
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