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Abu Dhabi Festival opens today

Abu Dhabi, March 19, 2011

The world’s greatest talents in music, jazz, opera, ballet, contemporary modern dance and visual arts will feature in the Abu Dhabi Festival, a major arts event, which opens today (March 19).

The eighth successive season of Abu Dhabi Festival will run up to April 4, with the main events taking place at Emirates Palace.

“The Abu Dhabi Festival is a celebration of the arts overwhelming and enveloping spirit of harmony,” said Hoda I Al Khamis Kanoo, founder and artistic director of the Abu Dhabi Festival.

“We are committed to bringing the world-class performers, artists and musicians to Abu Dhabi and this year is no different.”

“Our programme in 2011 seamlessly combines opera with jazz, ballet with contemporary dance, the musical poetry of the great classical composers with the poetry of Shakespeare’s written word and explores the great historical traditions of our own Arabic culture in the unique Zaha Hadid Pavilion,” she added.

This year’s festival, which ahs the theme “Harmony for Humanity”, will be kicked off by the GCC premiere of the Path of Roses exhibition by eminent Algerian artist Rachid Koraïchi, running throughout the programme.

Belgium will share cultures of understanding and mutual appreciation with the classical music of genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, presented by The Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and performed by the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, the country’s renowned classical ensemble conducted by virtuoso violinist Augustin Dumay.

The festival will also host the ground-breaking contemporary dance production PUSH on March 23.

The Sadler’s Wells London production will be performed by award winning dancer and choreographer Russell Maliphant and Sylvie Guillem, widely regarded as the greatest ballerina of her generation.

Performing a more traditional programme of classical ballet will be Maxim Beloserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko in a ballet gala evening on April 1. They will be joined by a selection of dancers from The Bolshoi and Marinsky.

On April 2, the festival’s orchestra-in-residence, the Russian National Orchestra, will be joined by Grammy award winning pianist Yefim Bronfman for a spectacular performance entitled “Bronfman and Brahms”. Conducted by Italian maestro Nicola Luisotti, the entertainment will celebrate Brahms, Beethoven and Verdi.

For the second year in a row jazz comes to the Abu Dhabi Festival, this year in the form of the seven-time Grammy Award winner Al Jarreau on April 3.

Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky and soprano Ekaterina Siurina alongside the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Nicola Luisotti will present operatic works by Mozart, Rossini and Verdi on the concluding day of the festival.

Zaha Hadid Pavilion

The unique chamber hall structure of the Zaha Hadid Pavilion will host a programme developed to explore the legacy of Arab art, music and culture in 2011.

The diverse programme at the Emirates Palace Lawns offers both music and song and visual arts. Musicians from The Academy – an ensemble group comprised of performers from Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute will collaborate with Emirati opera singer Sara Al Qaiwani in an intimate evening of Mozart, Schubert, Ravel and Schumann. – TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Emirates Palace | Opera | arts | Music | Abu Dhabi Festival |

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