Zorba, Cairo Opera Ballet, Cairo Opera House, Main Hall, 28 January -- 2 February Last minute changes in the Cairo Opera House programme have long confused audiences. Last season we were promised that this year would be different. The promises, sadly, have once again proved hollow. February has seen major alterations in both opera and ballet programmes. Lorca Massine's ballet Zorba was originally scheduled for two nights, on 23 and 24 February in the Opera's Main Hall, and Igor Stravinsky's Sacre du printemps from 28 January to 2 February. Then suddenly Stravinsky's ballet was cancelled and replaced by Massine's Zorba while Al-Leila Al-Kebira and one scene from Minkus's Don Quixote are now being performed on 23 and 24 February. Yet Al-Leila Al-Kebira occupied the stage for six nights as recently as last October, and Don Quixote for four nights last December. Is Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, planned for 5 to 10 April, going to disappear from the programme as Sacre du printemps did? One can never be sure. Nor does it seem that Cairo Opera is keen to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth. Don Giovanni, scheduled for six nights, from 12 to 17 February, has now been replaced by Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, originally planned for 7 to 12 May. So will Verdi's La Traviata, planned for June, suffer the same fate as Don Giovanni ? And just why are the Opera's own programmes subject to such chopping and changing? Igor Stravinsky's Sacre du printemps would have been an interesting experience. The two-part ballet choreographed by Nijinsky has not been performed in Cairo since the late eighties, when a production formed part of the celebration of the opening of the new Opera House. Still, Zorba is an alluring ballet: its advantage lies mostly in the A Capella choir lending beautiful soprano and baritone voices to the dramatic plot. They introduce the dance in grave, dusky tones while the woods and the brass seem dark and menacing. Zorba is the star of the show, though he shares the spotlight with John, the genteel, loving Englishman and Yorgos, the ruthless, wild Greek who stops at nothing to obtain whatever he desires. As the music swells and the lights grow brighter the plot preludes with village girls in lovely gowns dancing in the main square. The remarkable backdrop illustrating the rooftops and modest dwellings of a Greek village has always been a welcome sight whenever Mikis Theodorakis's two-act ballet is staged at the Main Hall. Zorba certainly fills the seats. The ballet was specially choreographed for Cairo Opera Ballet Company by Lorca Massine -- the son of Leonide -- with the participation of Cairo Opera Orchestra conducted by Ivan Filev, the A Capella choir directed by Maya Gwinneria and, last but not least, the fascinating mezzo-soprano Hanan El-Guindi. Lorca Massine's choreography remained faithful to the story created by Nikos Kazantzakis on which, subsequently, the film starring Antony Quinn was based. Few realise the plot is based on a true story. In 1917 Nikos Kazantzakis met a certain George Zorba while travelling through Greece. He undertook with him a mining project in the Peloponnese which was unsuccessful and they separated. Kazantzakis never forgot this experience and 25 years later produced the novel Alexis Zorba, about a passionate adventurer who takes life as it comes. It is Zorba who comforts John, the foreigner who has fallen in love with Marina, the young widow killed by Yorgos and his clan, and John who in turn comforts Zorba when his beloved Madame Hortense dies, following her robbery. The drama is poignant and so is the music: there is as much love and compassion as hatred and vindictiveness, as much clemency as cruelty in the plot. Hani Hassan is the best Zorba seen on stage, while Ahmed Nabil is brilliant as John, the elegant foreigner in his impeccable white costume. Nera Krapivko is a beautiful, subtle Marina: her pas-de-deux with John to the song of the choir and Hanan El-Guindi's fascinating solo was fabulous. The same goes for Erminia Kamel, once again in the role of Madame Hortense, the beautiful old lady who lives with her memories of love and glory. Kamel is the loveliest, most captivating Madame Hortense. The ballet ends with the celebrated tune accompanying Zorba's dance. Encored more than once, the thrilled audience clapped along with the tempo emphatically and the entire company appeared to be having a whale of a time on stage. The real George Zorba died in Serbia in 1942, during World War II. He would surely have been happy with Lorca Massine's version of his life and Mikis Theodorakis's music.
