Issue No. 601
People
Previous issue
Site map
|
|
29 August - 4 Sept. 2002 Issue No. 601 People |
Current issue Previous issue Site map | |
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Pack of Cards
Last week, my dears, I saw more music in the out of doors than most people see in a lifetime. First I found myself, along with my colleague Sherif Sonbol, in the open-air theatre attached to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, enjoying the music and dance spectacular called "Wallflower". Put on by two Swedish couples, choreographers and dancers Ami Skamberg Dahlstedt and Maria Mebins Schroder, and their respective husbands, musicians and composers Palle Dahlstedt and Christian Jormin, the stunning display ran for two nights to rave reviews. In fact, they were so well-received that the troupe was proffered an invitation to inaugurate next summer's open air music festival at the fantastic library. The festival, by the way, was organised by maestro Sherif Mohieddin, as a continuation of his fabulous efforts to promote music and the arts amongst the general public. You will all recall, of course, that Mohieddin was formerly the longtime director of the Cairo Citadel Music Festival, which has become a major cultural landmark in this city. He is clearly on his way to establishing the Alexandria festival in the same vein.
A few days later, my colleague Reham El-Adawi joined me for this summer's Citadel festival's final night. The programme started, ironically enough, with a performance by Al-Risalah troupe from Alexandria. This was followed by Abeer Amin, Mohamed Abdel-Hamid, and other members of the Arabic Music Company performing a repertoire of classics accompanied by Oriental Takht music.
A tango show by Uruguay's Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Federico Garc’a Vigil was the grand finale. The ceremony also concluded with honours being bestowed on those artists whose efforts helped make the festival an exceptional success.
Cairo Opera House director Samir Farag and the festival's supervisor, tenor Hassan Kami, granted certificates of recognition as well as honorary shields to Palestinian vocalist Abeer Sansour, Sudanese guitarist Al-Fatih Hussein, popular singer Mohamed Mounir, consummate pianist Omar Khayrat, pop singer Anoushka, maestro Ahmed Abul-Eid who conducts Al-Nour Wal-Amal Orchestra, sufi singer Ahmed El- Kahlawi and his Al-Enshad Al-Dini troupe in addition to pianist Fathi Salama and his Sharkiat band.
Farag said that the festival's organisers had decided to double the number of seats next year in order to accommodate bigger audiences. He also promised that the festival's 15th round would include more international troupes, as well as a daily bulletin in Arabic, English and French.
For those of you who are interested in numbers, this year's round was 12 days long and was attended by around 80,000 Egyptians and 10,000 tourists from different nationalities.
My next out door musical event took place in North Sinai, my dears, of all places. Along with my colleague Ahmed El- Tabarani, I was witness to a wonderful show put on by the Palestinian National troupe for folklore at the Sixth International Camel Race Festival. The event was also attended by North Sinai governor Ahmed Abdel-Hamid and Ismailia governor Fouad Saad. We all enjoyed the wonderful creativity of the Palestinian children, who expressed their precious heritage in the most soothing of sounds. Amongst the other countries that participated in the festival -- just so you know -- were Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Tunisia, Qatar, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In just a couple of months, you'll find me, again, out in the open air, enjoying the wonderful sounds of music. I'm talking, of course, about the upcoming 2002 presentation of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, scheduled to be presented at the foot of the Giza Pyramids, from 10 until 13 October.
The sad news is that the Italian maestro Anton Guadagno, who was set to conduct the sure-to-be-stunning show, passed away at age 85, just a few days ago. The beloved late maestro had conducted some 350 international operas throughout an operatic career which spanned 70 years, also occupying posts like the director of the Palm Beach Opera in the United States.
Al-Mazalat Foundation for Artistic and Media Production, sponsor of this year's Aida show, has commissioned maestro Maurizio Arena to replace the late Guadagno. Arena, who is 60, has conducted 15 versions of opera Aida worldwide.
Congratulations are in order for my dear colleague Doaa Sami Qurani, a features page writer in Al-Ahram's prestigious Friday edition, and a member of Al-Ahram organisation's General Assembly.
Qurani has just received her PhD in a very interesting specialisation: the current and future conditions that regulate birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates at the Civil Affairs Authority. The degree was conferred on her by the Libraries and Documents Department at the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University. The committee that discussed her research included Mahmoud Abbass Hammouda, professor of documents and information at the Faculty of Arts, and Mustafa Abdel-Rahman, the dean of the Faculty of Law at Al-Menufiya University .
I am also so very proud of my diligent colleague Mahmoud Bakr, Al-Ahram Weekly's environmental affairs reporter, who was invited by Rod Al-Farag Cultural Palace to deliver a lecture on the means to combat pollution and maintain a clean environment. The seminar, organised by the State Information Service, was supervised by Maher Fahmi and attended by Mohamed El-Shabrawi, director of the Rod El-Farag Palace.
Bakr spoke eloquently about the main pollution problems facing Egypt in areas like Helwan and Shubra Al-Kheima. He also highlighted the importance of the Johannesburg Earth Summit's sustainable development theme. Other crucial environmental issues such as worldwide floods and the global warming phenomenon were also brought into sharp focus.
Finally, my sweets, I must also mention a recent ceremony I attended at the Cairo International Conference Centre in Nasr City, where I watched my good friend Marwa El-Wakil receive her diploma with top honours in management from the Sadat Academy for Management Science's High Level Management Institute. Marwa is currently an assistant professor at the academy's Computer Section, and I certainly wish her, and all her colleagues, the best of luck as Egypt enters the brave new world of information technology.
|
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
