I never realized that the Arab world had opera. I knew there was music like love songs, but not opera.
Bringing Arab opera to a Western stage
A concert performance at London's Royal Opera House is a timely showcase the Middle East's gifted artists.
18 Jul 2015 16:18 GMT | Arts & Culture, Middle East, United Kingdom, Art, Opera
The Shubbak Arts Festival will seek to offer a new, alternative perspective on the Arab world's modern identity, writes Asfour [Getty]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lana Asfour
Lana Asfour is a journalist based in London and Beirut.
@LanaAsfour
Last Friday, London saw the launch of Shubbak, a two-week cultural extravaganza showcasing contemporary arts from the Arab world and its international diaspora.
In the same week, it was announced that this autumn the Whitechapel Gallery will hold an exhibition of work from the Barjeel Art Foundation, one of the largest collections of modern and contemporary Arab art.
The Dubai art fair, founded in 2006, and the Saatchi Gallery's 2009 exhibition "New Art from the Middle East," began to stir interest in Arab cultural expression and activity throughout the West. However, it wasn't until 2011 - when the Shubbak festival was first held in London - that contemporary Arab art truly entered the UK's cultural mainstream.
There has always been plenty of Arab art flourishing with international renown throughout history. But until recently, relatively little Arabic literature has been translated into English, and exhibitions of Arab art, or performances of Arab music and theatre have been specialised, small-scale affairs.
Part of the Shubbak festival, and arguably the apex of this recent and increasingly established interest in Arab culture, is the commission and performance of an Arab opera.
Cities of Salt, scenes from which will be presented in concert at the Royal Opera House on July 22, is based on the eponymous novel of the same name by Saudi-Iraqi novelist Abd al-Rahman Munif.
Counting the Cost - Art in the Gulf
Modern Arabic fiction
One of the most important works of modern Arabic fiction, Cities of Salt is the first of a five-novel series that charts the social, economic and developmental transformation of the Gulf countries and their Bedouin communities when American oil companies arrived in the 1930s.
It is deeply critical of both the Americans and the local businessmen who worked with them to create unprecedented change. While oil could have benefited the Gulf countries and their communities, it instead led to promises of wealth for elites and to the creation of shallow and insubstantial "cities of salt" that could easily dissolve.
The novel is banned in Saudi Arabia and Munif was stripped of his Saudi nationality for this and other writings - many of which contain parodied representations of political and economic elites. Cities of Salt is arguably his greatest work, and its adaptation into an opera is both a brilliant idea and a timely one.
Continue reading at:
Bringing Arab opera to a Western stage - Al Jazeera English?
Bringing Arab opera to a Western stage
A concert performance at London's Royal Opera House is a timely showcase the Middle East's gifted artists.
18 Jul 2015 16:18 GMT | Arts & Culture, Middle East, United Kingdom, Art, Opera
The Shubbak Arts Festival will seek to offer a new, alternative perspective on the Arab world's modern identity, writes Asfour [Getty]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lana Asfour
Lana Asfour is a journalist based in London and Beirut.
@LanaAsfour
Last Friday, London saw the launch of Shubbak, a two-week cultural extravaganza showcasing contemporary arts from the Arab world and its international diaspora.
In the same week, it was announced that this autumn the Whitechapel Gallery will hold an exhibition of work from the Barjeel Art Foundation, one of the largest collections of modern and contemporary Arab art.
The Dubai art fair, founded in 2006, and the Saatchi Gallery's 2009 exhibition "New Art from the Middle East," began to stir interest in Arab cultural expression and activity throughout the West. However, it wasn't until 2011 - when the Shubbak festival was first held in London - that contemporary Arab art truly entered the UK's cultural mainstream.
There has always been plenty of Arab art flourishing with international renown throughout history. But until recently, relatively little Arabic literature has been translated into English, and exhibitions of Arab art, or performances of Arab music and theatre have been specialised, small-scale affairs.
Part of the Shubbak festival, and arguably the apex of this recent and increasingly established interest in Arab culture, is the commission and performance of an Arab opera.
Cities of Salt, scenes from which will be presented in concert at the Royal Opera House on July 22, is based on the eponymous novel of the same name by Saudi-Iraqi novelist Abd al-Rahman Munif.
Counting the Cost - Art in the Gulf
Modern Arabic fiction
One of the most important works of modern Arabic fiction, Cities of Salt is the first of a five-novel series that charts the social, economic and developmental transformation of the Gulf countries and their Bedouin communities when American oil companies arrived in the 1930s.
It is deeply critical of both the Americans and the local businessmen who worked with them to create unprecedented change. While oil could have benefited the Gulf countries and their communities, it instead led to promises of wealth for elites and to the creation of shallow and insubstantial "cities of salt" that could easily dissolve.
The novel is banned in Saudi Arabia and Munif was stripped of his Saudi nationality for this and other writings - many of which contain parodied representations of political and economic elites. Cities of Salt is arguably his greatest work, and its adaptation into an opera is both a brilliant idea and a timely one.
Continue reading at:
Bringing Arab opera to a Western stage - Al Jazeera English?
