WATANI International 29 August 2010
The Egyptian Opera House is celebrating Ramadan with a flurry of concerts and festivals on its various venues in Cairo, Alexandria, Damietta on the western branch of the Nile Delta, and Damanhour west of the Delta. President of the Opera House Abdel-Moniem Kamel said that this year music lovers were able to attend any of some 80 concerts throughout 40 days. More than 250,000 spectators have already taken advantage of the free entry to these concerts, which the Opera House’s officials instated with the aim of spreading a culture of fine musical arts among the Egyptian public. Festival at the citadel Throughout 11 days, the 12th century Saladin Citadel perched atop the Muqattam Hill east of Cairo has been hosting the 20th round of the annual Citadel Festival for Song and Music. The 42 concerts, in which 24 bands and a collection of star singers took part, were attended by more than 120,000 spectators. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni seized the opportunity and honoured five persons who significantly contributed to the festival success along the years. These included the late contrabass player Samir Abdel-Fattah who played with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra for 30 years; Omar Farahat, conductor of the religious chanting group at the Cairo Opera House, and Mahmoud al-Afifi, administrative supervisor of the Citadel Festival for more than 13 years. Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Syria, and Indonesia, participated in the festival. The repertoire included oriental music, religious chanting, folk music and song, as well as classic, jazz, and contemporary music. Mahka al-Qalaa, literally the Citadel house of narrative, hosted star Arab singers, among whom were the Egyptians Mohammed al-Helw, Medhat Saleh, Iman al-Bahr Darwish and Nadia Mustafa; and the Syrian Magd al-Qassem. Oriental music was introduced by, among others, the bands Layali al-Sharq (Oriental Evenings); Rawaie al-Nagham (Marvel Tunes); Banat al-Nil (Nile Daughters); and Konouz (Treasures). On the contemporary level Manal Mohyeddin played her famous harp; Ahmed Saleh and his band treated audiences to Nubian music, Nesma Abdel-Aziz played the marimba, Emad Hamdi the clarinet, and Nayer Nagui conducted the Cairo Orchestra. Ramadan evenings The Cairo Opera House held 19 evenings in which nine Arab and Islamic countries—Tunisia, Sudan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Bosnia, and Palestine—paraded their Ramadan traditions. The “Easy go Jakarta” group of the Art Academy in Indonesia performed traditional and modern Indonesian dances. And “Black Thema” group, which blends traditional Nubian rhythms and modern music to express the serenity of the South and the madness of the capital, gave a thrilling performance. The group presented their most famous songs, parading their pride of their African and Arab roots. Beach tunes More than 20,000 persons flocked from far and near to the beach of al-Nakhil at the unique spot of Rass al-Bar, Damietta, where the Nile flows into the Mediterranean, to listen to the singer Ihab Tawfiq perform at a concert organised by the Opera House. Throughout two hours in the ravishing sea breeze, Tawfiq sang 18 of his best-loved songs to an audience that joined him wholeheartedly in the chorus. Sufi music The festival of International Samaa (listening) for chanting and Sufi music, is being held at the Ibdaa’ center of the Ghouri Dome in Islamic Cairo. This year’s round, according to Intissar Abdel-Fattah, president of the festival, is held under the theme title of “Listening, and the culture of dialogue between nations”, aiming at preserving the authentic heritage and rare musical sentences of Sufi melodies. The festival also aims at maintaining human communication and interaction within the universality of Sufi thought and tunes in which one is united with nature, humankind, and God. Samaa chose Cairo as the capital of Sufi music along this Ramadan. This year’s festival is witnessing participation of the most important Sufi groups all over the world, including those from Uzbekistan, India, Bosnia, Spain, Syria, Morocco, Sudan, Indonesia, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.
