DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Already filled with
towering skyscrapers, Dubai will soon offer soaring arias inside a new opera
house.
The city-state is opening the Dubai Opera on Wednesday
night, in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.
This isn't the first opera house built on the Arabian
Peninsula, as Oman opened the Royal Opera House Muscat in 2011. But the arrival
of the performance center comes as part of a greater push by the United Arab
Emirates, already home to engineering marvels, into the world of the fine arts.
"It certainly couldn't be said that Dubai has no
culture; it's got an enormous amount of culture," Dubai Opera's chief
executive Jasper Hope told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "What it
hasn't had is a world-class stage, a world-class facility to display that
culture.
"What Dubai Opera offers is an opportunity now for
people to know that there is a home — a true home — for world-class culture
here in Dubai."
The opera house resembles a dhow, the traditional wooden
boat that can still be seen plying the waters of the Dubai Creek. Its glass bow
rises up to a point looking out at the dancing Dubai Fountain, and a
multi-story glass chandelier resembling a fishing net hangs in the lobby. The
building sits near the 828-meter (2,717-foot) -tall Burj Khalifa and the nearby
Dubai Mall in the city-state's chic downtown.
Inside, individual air conditioning vents beneath the
2,000-some seats are designed to quietly cool the auditorium during the desert
city's boiling summers, when temperatures exceed 50 degrees Celsius (122
degrees Fahrenheit). The auditorium can be reconfigured for gala events and
other performances.
Emaar Properties, which is partially owned by the Dubai
government, developed the opera house. It refused to say how much the structure
cost when asked by the AP.
Those on hand for a dress rehearsal Tuesday of the opera
"The Barber of Seville" also stopped journalists and those gathered
from taking pictures outside of the building, as migrant workers rushed to finish
constructing a set of exterior stairs. The opera will open Wednesday night with
a performance by famed Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo.
The Dubai Opera offers a new draw for planned Emaar
high-rise residential towers downtown, and could bring concerts and events out
of the cavernous, air-conditioned halls of the city's World Trade Center.
The arrival of the opera house comes amid a push in the
seven-sheikhdom United Arab Emirates to increase its presence on the global
arts stage.
In the country's capital, construction continues on the
Louvre Abu Dhabi, the forthcoming Emirati branch of the famed Parisian art
gallery. A branch of the New York-based Guggenheim Museum is also planned. And
in Dubai, a fledging art district has sprung up among the factories and
warehouses of its Al Quoz industrial area. The new development has proven divisive at times. Many in
the art world have criticized Abu Dhabi's penchant for franchising existing
names, and human rights groups have raised concerns about the conditions faced
by migrant workers.
But Hope said the building of the opera house wouldn't mark
the end of Dubai's efforts at drawing cultural events, but rather its
beginning. "This can inspire all kinds of performance — amateur
and professional," he said. "It can inspire the next generation to
really understand what world-class live entertainment is all about. And that
deserves something of this scale."
Dubai Opera: http://www.dubaiopera.com/
This article appeared original in Yahoo News:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/skyscraper-filled-dubai-burnishes-arts-scene-opera-141503127.html
Management of corporate event venues San Francisco includes coordination of technical aspects before getting down to truly implementing the modalities of the planned event. Like event management for product launches or a corporate seminar.
ReplyDelete