After the smashing success of last year's free concerts that took place in public gardens, Opera House Director Samir Farag has decided this summer will feature more of the same.
Amongst the Egyptian pop singers participating this year are Mohamed Mounir, Ali El-Haggar, Iman El- Bahr Darwish and Nadia Mustafa. Syrian composer Safwan Bahlawan, Morocco's Fouad Zabadi, and Elham El-Madfa'i from Iraq are also taking part. They will be accompanied by music ensembles like the Abdel-Halim Noweira troupe, led by Salah Ghoubashi. A bevy of hip bands whose music spans the spectrum of sound will also be performing: these include West Al- Balad's modern Egyptian sound; jazz by both Eftekasat and Yehia Khalil, Yehia Ghannam's unique style of pop; as well as classical Arab troupes like Qithara and Asatisat Al-Tarab, and Nubian folklore performed by the likes of Sudanese guitarist Sharhabeel, and singers Karam Mourad and Ahmed Salaam.
On Tuesday, my colleague Reham El-Adawi attended a press conference held at the Supreme Council of Culture featuring the latest news about the 27th Cairo International Film Festival, which is set to take place from 7 to 17 October.
Journalists attending the event were impressed by Festival President Cherif El-Shoubashy's charming manner, as well as his avid attention to their inquiries.
This year's round of the Middle East and Africa's premier cultural and artistic event looks to be a not-to- be-missed event. Some 160 movies from over 40 countries will be screened, including a very ambitious plan to show films every night at two public gardens in the Cairo and Giza governorates.
This year, France will be the festival's guest of honour, with a gem of French cinema opening the entire event. A very interesting section of the festival will also be dedicated to female directors from the Arab world, in which countries like Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco will take part. The festival will also showcase nine films from Bollywood -- the Indian cinema industry's answer to Hollywood.
El-Shoubashy also told attendees all about the state-of-the-art electronic Arabic subtitling technique that will be used this year to ensure that local movie-goers can follow the events on screen, no matter what language the film is in.
This year's Ninth Radio and Television Festival has begun, and thanks to my colleague Hanan Sabra, I have all the news. The event's opening took place at the 6 October Media Production City, and featured an operetta titled It is About Time performed by singer Ali El-Haggar, actress Wafaa Salem, actor Ashraf Abdel-Ghafour and others. A documentary titled A Moment of Faithfulness dedicated to the late actors Alaa Walieddin and Mohamed Tawfiq, actress Sanaa Gamil, scriptwriters Mohsen Zayed and Osama Ghazi and directors Radwan El- Kashef and Hussein Kamal was then screened. Afterwards, actresses Somaiya El-Alfi and Poussi, actors Yehia El-Fakharani, Salah El- Saadani and Hassan Hosni were honoured for their work, as were rising stars Hanan Turk, Menna Shalabi and Reham Abdel-Ghafour.
Several thousand guests showed up at the US Embassy courtyard on 2 July to celebrate America's Independence Day. US Ambassador in Egypt David Welch told the attendees that, "some of you may be wondering why we are celebrating on the second of July rather than the fourth. It was on the second of July 1776, that the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, adopted a resolution declaring that: 'These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States'."
Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, Deputy Prime Minister Youssef Wali, representatives of the Cairo diplomatic corps, and prominent media figures were amongst the guests, who were treated to a rendition of Egypt's national anthem Beladi (My Country), sung by the Cairo Opera Company's gifted soprano Dahlia Farouk, as well as the American national anthem The Star-Spangled Banner, performed by Lieutenant Joritta Dotson Hardy of the US Navy.
At the opening of the "Reading For All" festival held recently at Al- Minya's main stadium, I enjoyed, along with my colleague Amany Abdel- Moneim, a performance of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and The Wolf ballet, translated by Nazih Girgis, the founder of the US-Mid- East Music and Fine Arts Council. Girgis translated the piece from Russian into Arabic and English, with a goal towards teaching children about determination and decision making, as well as the importance of loving nature and being kind to animals. The show was choreographed by Fatemah Marzouk, and attended by Al-Minya governor Hassan Hemeida, who handed out certificates of recognition to the budding ballet dancers afterwards.
It broke my heart last week, my dears, to hear that one of my favourite singers of all time -- the great Barry White -- had passed away. White's unbelievably deep baritone -- a soul-rooted rumble which has been called the sexiest voice on earth -- was perhaps more famous than the singer himself.
My dear colleague Tarek Atia reminded me that White had put on a series of concerts in Cairo back in October 1994. Atia had interviewed White at the time, with the singer exclusively revealing, on the pages of the Weekly no less, that he thought his mother was Egyptian. "My father's roots lead back to South Africa," he had said. "He was a Zulu warrior who wandered into Egypt and found this beautiful black Egyptian girl. They created two sons... and one was named Barry White."
Although the tale sounded somewhat mythical, White told Atia that he truly believed it, as he had ever since his aunts and grandmothers told him the story when he was a little boy. "Egypt holds spiritual things for me, very deep things, things that are very sacred," he said.
White has plenty of Egyptian fans, as was evident at the sold out series of concerts that took place that year. His recent passing is sad, of course, but we can all take comfort in the fact that his giant disco grooves and sexy love songs will live on. "My music is all about love," White told the Weekly back then. "People coming together, staying with each other, growing with each other. Making a commitment and keeping it."
I can assure you, my sweets, that those are the kinds of sentiments that we can never get enough of.