Amal Choucri Catta finds some nuts too hard to crack Nutcracker Ballet, Cairo Ballet Company; artistic dir. Erminia Kamel; Cairo Opera Orchestra, cond. Nader Abbassi. Cairo Opera House, Main Hall, 24 to 30 December 2006, 11am. Opera as puppet show: Amahl and the Night Visitors ; dir. Hisham El-Talli. Cairo Opera House, Small Hall, 28 and 29 December, 8pm December has always been a busy month at Cairo Opera's different halls, and last year was no exception. Among the most popular events was Tchaikovsky's two-act Nutcracker Ballet, which enjoyed a full house for seven performances at the Main Hall. Gian-Carlo Menotti's one-act opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, by contrast, had a somewhat unfortunate premiere as puppet show for two nights in the small hall. Presented by Cairo Opera's Ballet Company, choreographed by Abdel-Moneim Kamel under the artistic supervision of Erminia Kamel with Cairo Opera's Orchestra conducted by Nader Abbassi, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker gave us this time a very slim, very elegant doctor Drosselmeyer, beautifully performed by Hani Hassan who is masterfully striding towards international stardom. A few years ago, when he started making a name for himself as Zorba, star of Mikis Theodorakis' renowned ballet, choreographed for Cairo Opera by Lorca Massine, he was an outstanding performer. Such was his success that he was asked by the Greek company to go on tour with them. At the time, some critics thought he would never make it in classical or traditional ballet. They were wrong: he was excellent in all the following ballet performances and now he has presented a fascinating Drosselmeyer in the Nutcracker. His soli were brilliant and his pas-de-deux with young Clara remarkable. Cairo Opera's Ballet Company also has two brilliant male stars, Ahmed Yehia and Ahmed Nabil, cast consecutively in the role of Prince Nutcracker. There is a third Egyptian star in the making: Amr Farouk, a talented dancer of the younger generation who interpreted Drosselmeyer as second cast. With four male stars stealing the different shows, one is prone to ask: where are the Egyptian Prima Ballerinas? Some time ago, we had three: Nelly Karim, Nadine Farouk and Lamia Abdel-Ghani who performed beautifully in Zorba, Al-Laila Al-Kabira, Lorkiana and other one-act ballets. Nelly Karim and Nadine Farouk became screen stars, while occasionally taking on brief roles. However, since the good days Prima Ballerina Erminia Kamel, local female stars have vanished from the ballet scene. Now we have brilliant Katia Ivanonva from Kiev and young Olga Dirda from Tashkent. We are also lucky to have beautiful Sahar Helmi, who gave us a fabulous "Eastern Dance", impersonating "the coffee" in the Nutcracker. Hers was a totally engrossing performance, swaying passionately into and out of an immense veil carried by four maidens. As always, sets and scenes of this ballet were splendid, mainly snowflakes waltzing back-stage into the pine forest and from there into the skies, while Clara and her prince arrive in a boat before venturing into "Konfituerenland" with its cookies and its sweets, its tea and its chocolate as well as a variety of sugar cakes and apple pies and the ever- growing Christmas tree. Yehia as the Prince and Ivanonva as Clara were an enchanting couple. The young dancers from Cairo's Academy of Arts Ballet School were a welcome sight: they were delightful mice and pleasant little soldiers. Their performance under Ivette Naguib's supervision and Erminia Kamel's artistic direction was particularly appealing. Musically, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker has turned into a lasting success, with Nader Abbassi's vibrant baton conducting the orchestra while giving us sensitive pianissimi and triumphant fortissimi and leading us into a world of fabulous melodies. Here as elsewhere, the Nutcracker has become a real Christmas favourite. This Christmas, however, the Nutcracker was not the only show on the programme. For the first time the opera's lyric company presented Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors as a puppet show directed by Hisham El-Talli -- who has taken part in a number of opera productions since 2001 and has directed Mozart's Impresario and Menotti's The Telephone -- with recorded instrumental and vocal music, at the Small Hall. It is the story of a kind, disabled boy who lives with his mother in a very modest home. One night, they receive the Magi -- Kasper, Melchior and Balthazar -- who are journeying to pay homage to the infant Christ. While they sleep. Amahl's mother tries to steal some of their riches; though apprehended by the page, she is forgiven by Melchior. When the kings prepare to depart, Amahl offers them his crutch as a gift for the Christ child. His generosity is rewarded by the miraculous healing of his crippled leg and he joins the Magi on their quest. At the Opera's Small Hall, the vocal and instrumental recording was excellent, the singers' voices beautiful, their English diction perfect and the playback of a remarkable quality. Unfortunately, however, the puppets were performing in a rather narrow space, with sets and costumes of an inadequate quality. Amahl and the Night Visitors would have been better served with handsomer puppets. Amahl's mother looked like an ugly old witch, while the three kings were a real disaster. From the very beginning of the show it was clear that neither El-Talli nor the puppets' designers knew anything about the importance of the three kings and the birth of Christ, so central an event in the Gospels, nor did they have any knowledge of Hieronymus Bosch's painting The Adoration of the Magi, which inspired Menotti's Night Visitors. If puppets are generally funny looking, the three kings should have been created with more respect. On the other hand, it is clear that the performance received inadequate publicity. The Small Hall was filled with children and their parents: they had visibly expected a puppet show and not an opera. As the first notes were sung by Amahl's mother, the children started laughing and while the show went on, many members of the audience left the hall.
