When French-Iranian soprano Darya Dadvar gives her debut performance in the Gulf, which takes place at Dubai Opera on Monday it will be the first time the singer's mother has seen her perform outside her home country, Iran. The singer will receive a very warm welcome as her family and friends are travelling to Dubai en masse from Iran especially for the event, meaning some long overdue reunions, and even a first meeting for her mother and the mother of her French husband.
"I'm singing one of my mother's songs as she's coming from Iran, too. She's seen me perform opera in Iran [Dadvar performed twice on stage in Iran during a brief liberalisation in 2002 under President Mohammad Khatani], but she's never seen me perform my music and what I've been doing for all these years, so that'll be really special for both of us," she says.
The singer, who grew up in Iran, took her musical studies diploma in vocal training in France, and a year later finished her musical education at the National Conservatory of Toulouse. In 2001, she moved to Paris, launching a successful career as a soprano. Dadvar also creates her own music, mixing traditional Iranian with European classical style.
Unsurprisingly, Dadvar has put something a little bit special into the concert's programme to mark the momentous occasion: "For this concert, I have chosen to sing the best things I could for this particular event," she says. "I could just do my own compositions, but this is a very special event, so I'll be doing one of my best friend's compositions. He is coming from Iran to see me – he's scared of flying, so he's coming all the way by boat."
Dadvar will be mixing up these very special performances with her own music, and classics from Persian, English and French cultures. The singer says that her work can’t really ever be tied down to one particular style or culture.
“Anywhere on the whole planet where I have done concerts, the audiences just totally connect with it. That’s just who I am and what I do, it’s international music,” she says.
“There are touches of Arabic music, Baroque music, classical, contemporary music, oriental music, jazz in there. That’s all the sort of music I listen to, and the music I compose just kind of pops out like that.”
Dadvar is also looking forward to appearing in one of the world’s most modern performance spaces, and sees it as a sign of the rapid changes sweeping the region. “The venue is exceptional. You wouldn’t believe the ways things are changing, the things that are happening, the activities available in the Middle East today. It would have been unthinkable a few years ago,” she says.
“When I used to meet people from the region in London or Paris, I always used to think I couldn’t communicate with them. I remember my cousin, who’s about 20 years older than me, did some work in the region in oil, and everything about it seemed to be so secretive and guarded, but the younger generation of Arabs now, it’s totally different. There’s so much more openness.”
She admits she had certain preconceptions of what to expect before agreeing to the show: "Initially, when I thought of Dubai, I thought very much about appearance." There was a negative misconception which, she says, was quickly dispelled when she began communicating with the people involved with the show.
"When I began exchanges with my producer in Dubai, and all the other people I've been communicating with, you realise it's not like that at all," she says. "I can tell you everybody is helping for this event, and I see the humanity of all the people I am connected with in the Middle East, right up to the director of
the opera."
With so many friends and family in town for the performance, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Dadvar, her husband and three children will be spending a few days in town to catch up with old friends. She says her hopes for her stay are somewhat more spiritual.
“We’re going to be staying on for a few days, and I may even extend it to see my mother for longer if possible, but I never go anywhere as a tourist,” she says. “For me, the most beautiful, historical places are people’s hearts. I want to meet the highest, most spiritual people, and connect with them and learn from them. That’s the only thing I want to do in my life.”
Darya Dadvar performs at Dubai Opera on Monday, April 23. Tickets from Dh495. For more information, see www.dubaiopera.com
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match info
Southampton 2 (Ings 32' & pen 89') Tottenham Hotspur 5 (Son 45', 47', 64', & 73', Kane 82')
Man of the match Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
Stormy seas
Weather warnings show that Storm Eunice is soon to make landfall. The videographer and I are scrambling to return to the other side of the Channel before it does. As we race to the port of Calais, I see miles of wire fencing topped with barbed wire all around it, a silent ‘Keep Out’ sign for those who, unlike us, aren’t lucky enough to have the right to move freely and safely across borders.
We set sail on a giant ferry whose length dwarfs the dinghies migrants use by nearly a 100 times. Despite the windy rain lashing at the portholes, we arrive safely in Dover; grateful but acutely aware of the miserable conditions the people we’ve left behind are in and of the privilege of choice.
Isle of Dogs
Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Bryan Cranston, Liev Schreiber, Ed Norton, Greta Gerwig, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson
Three stars
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Brief scoreline:
Wolves 3
Neves 28', Doherty 37', Jota 45' 2
Arsenal 1
Papastathopoulos 80'
Fines for littering
In Dubai:
Dh200 for littering or spitting in the Dubai Metro
Dh500 for throwing cigarette butts or chewing gum on the floor, or littering from a vehicle.
Dh1,000 for littering on a beach, spitting in public places, throwing a cigarette butt from a vehicle
In Sharjah and other emirates
Dh500 for littering - including cigarette butts and chewing gum - in public places and beaches in Sharjah
Dh2,000 for littering in Sharjah deserts
Dh500 for littering from a vehicle in Ras Al Khaimah
Dh1,000 for littering from a car in Abu Dhabi
Dh1,000 to Dh100,000 for dumping waste in residential or public areas in Al Ain
Dh10,000 for littering at Ajman's beaches
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
RESULT
Aston Villa 1
Samatta (41')
Manchester City 2
Aguero (20')
Rodri (30')
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company profile
Company: Eighty6
Date started: October 2021
Founders: Abdul Kader Saadi and Anwar Nusseibeh
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Hospitality
Size: 25 employees
Funding stage: Pre-series A
Investment: $1 million
Investors: Seed funding, angel investors
Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
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.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
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Simran
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Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Soham Shah, Esha Tiwari Pandey
Three stars
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Meatless Days
Sara Suleri, with an introduction by Kamila Shamsie
Penguin
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
Barbie
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
