When Makhar Vaziev, the artistic director of Milan's Scala Ballet, first received an invitation for the company to perform at a new opera house in Muscat, he admits he drew a blank.
"Honestly, when we received the invitation from Oman, we weren't sure what to do because we really didn't know anything about the place. In my time with both the Scala and [St Petersburg's] Mariinsky ballet I have never been involved in a performance in the Gulf before. It's completely new for me."
Vaziev's confusion is perhaps understandable. Oman's brand-new Royal Opera House, which stages its first performance at a gala on Friday, is an extremely novel project in a region where both opera and ballet are otherwise thin on the ground.
Cairo and Damascus are the only cities in the region that have opera houses worth the name - even cosmopolitan Beirut's former house is now a Virgin Megastore. Against this backdrop, Oman's new state-of-the-art, 1,100-seater venue's arrival seems exotic.
And sure enough, it has been making a splash even before opening. With a series of star performers any more-established venue would envy, tickets have sold out for both the opera house's inaugural performances of Puccini's Turandot, as well as for its gala performances by the tenors Plácido Domingo and Andrea Bocelli.
And, according to Vaziar, the venue is already getting an excellent word-of-mouth reputation among performers.
"When we asked around before our engagement to perform Giselle, we heard such fantastic things about Oman, about the new opera house, its repertoire and the level of the performers there, that we became very enthusiastic indeed. It's our first time in Oman, but we really hope it isn't our last"
Aesthetically, the new opera house is a hit too. Marrying the classic hump-backed opera house silhouette (necessary to fit in drop-down scenery) with a fringe of fort-like towers and cool colonnades, it's an imposing but human structure that incorporates Omani architectural traditions elegantly. Inside, its auditorium benefits from a loose, adjustable shell so that the stage's proscenium arch can be expanded or reduced to fit a production's scale.
By world opera-house standards, ROH Muscat's vast-sounding capacity of 1,100 spectators is actually fairly small. Paris's Opera Garnier can house 2,200, while the New York Met seats a massive 3,800 people at full capacity.
Muscat's more modest proportions need not be a drawback, however. They mean that even people sitting in the cheaper seats will get a decent view - not the case in vast auditoriums such as the Moscow Bolshoi.
But while the ROH Muscat's opening buzz is good, building a full-time venue is still a bold move in a region where opera and ballet barely have a foothold. Does it face an uphill struggle with audiences once its novelty has dimmed? After all, opera's grand gestures, unamplified but booming voices and often maze-like plots are an acquired taste even for people in countries with a vibrant opera culture. Won't these conventions seem too alien in Oman? Myrna Bustani, the artistic director of Lebanon's classical Al Bustan Festival, rejects the idea that Middle Eastern audiences might find opera too challenging.
"While you need to become accustomed to opera, ours is a region where everybody sings and where people have a deep appreciation of beautiful singing," she said. "We also have some truly wonderful voices in the Middle East."
Likewise, Till Janczukowicz, the artistic director of the Abu Dhabi Classics, rejects too rigid a separation between western and Middle Eastern musical traditions.
"The classical music of Europe would not have existed in its present form without the influence of music from the Arab world in the eighth and ninth centuries. And as this classical culture moved on from Europe - to the New World and Asia - certain things were added from each region. The Middle East is now simply taking part in this ongoing process," he says, adding: "Opera's stories of love and tragedy talk to people here in a very direct way."
Despite these votes of confidence from other Middle Eastern musical figures, the ROH Muscat team certainly seems to be suffering from pre-opening nerves.
Repeated requests for an interview with the artistic director were rejected; ultimately an unnamed spokesman pointed out via email that the Gulf is not the only region where opera can be an acquired taste.
"Even in Europe, as opera was introduced, it required a period of acclimation as audiences grew accustomed to the form, its conventions, its rituals and personas."
Furthermore, it went on, Muscat's citizens were neither all opera novices, nor were they being expected to sit through anything particularly taxing (say, all four days of Wagner's Ring cycle) in the city's first opera season.
"Muscat is an international city and many residents have already experienced opera," wrote the spokesman. "The ROHM has chosen this inaugural season's productions - Puccini's Turandot and Bizet's Carmen - as they are beloved mainstays of the worldwide canon."
Muscat's first season has certainly been carefully chosen, with a big name-packed schedule that mixes art forms from across the world and spans both high and popular culture. Alongside peaks from western art such as the Mariinsky Ballet performing Swan Lake and the American cellist Yo Yo Ma playing Dvor¿ák with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the programme also explores beyond the European tradition.
Among non-western performers, it includes the Universal Ballet of Korea and the Egyptian singer Riham Abdul Hakim performing the music of Oum Kalthoum. And while star billing goes to Domingo and Renee Fleming (arguably America's finest soprano) for gala concerts, it is not limited to a strict operatic or classical repertoire, introducing the veteran jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the operatic pop star Bocelli to Oman.
Opera-wise, Muscat's first offerings, Turandot and Carmen, may be popular choices, but they are also, thematically speaking, strong meat.
Even when safely distanced through period costume, the murder, theft and allusions to adultery in these works help explain why the term "operatic" is used to describe any drama full of passionate, unfettered emotion.
Crucially, these are not travelling productions but shows specially adapted and sometimes created for Muscat's stage.
Due on December 17, the opera house's Carmen will be directed by the Oscar-winning designer Gianni Quaranta.
Even the season's opener, the veteran director Franco Zeffirelli's hugely popular New York Met staging of Turandot, comes with new Muscat-only costumes, sets and cast.
Whether these high-calibre productions win audiences over, of course, remains to be seen - but for now at least, other than when it comes to talking about it, the Royal Opera House Muscat has not put a foot wrong.
Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Racecard:
6.30pm: Mazrat Al Ruwayah (PA) | Group 2 | US$55,000 (Dirt) | 1,600 metres
7.05pm: Meydan Sprint (TB) | Group 2 | $250,000 (Turf) | 1,000m
7.40pm: Firebreak Stakes | Group 3 | $200,000 (D) | 1,600m
8.15pm: Meydan Trophy | Conditions (TB) | $100,000 (T) | 1,900m
8.50pm: Balanchine | Group 2 (TB) | $250,000 (T) | 1,800m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) | $135,000 (D) | 1,200m
10pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (T) | 2,410m.
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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How will Gen Alpha invest?
Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.
“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.
Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.
He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.
Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”
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Engine: 1.5L three-cylinder petrol, plus 11.6 kWh lithium-ion battery
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
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Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
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ALL THE RESULTS
Bantamweight
Siyovush Gulmomdov (TJK) bt Rey Nacionales (PHI) by decision.
Lightweight
Alexandru Chitoran (ROU) bt Hussein Fakhir Abed (SYR) by submission.
Catch 74kg
Omar Hussein (JOR) bt Tohir Zhuraev (TJK) by decision.
Strawweight (Female)
Seo Ye-dam (KOR) bt Weronika Zygmunt (POL) by decision.
Featherweight
Kaan Ofli (TUR) bt Walid Laidi (ALG) by TKO.
Lightweight
Abdulla Al Bousheiri (KUW) bt Leandro Martins (BRA) by TKO.
Welterweight
Ahmad Labban (LEB) bt Sofiane Benchohra (ALG) by TKO.
Bantamweight
Jaures Dea (CAM) v Nawras Abzakh (JOR) no contest.
Lightweight
Mohammed Yahya (UAE) bt Glen Ranillo (PHI) by TKO round 1.
Lightweight
Alan Omer (GER) bt Aidan Aguilera (AUS) by TKO round 1.
Welterweight
Mounir Lazzez (TUN) bt Sasha Palatkinov (HKG) by TKO round 1.
Featherweight title bout
Romando Dy (PHI) v Lee Do-gyeom (KOR) by KO round 1.
hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The Freedom Artist
By Ben Okri (Head of Zeus)
