Amal Choukri Catta tries to disregard the chipsy-munching public and to concentrate instead on the finer things in life Ballets Lorkiana and , Cairo Opera Ballet Company, director Abdel- Moneim Kamel, Cairo Opera House, Main Hall, 14, 15 & 16 November, 8 pm and Sayed Darwish Theatre, Alexandria, 18 & 19 November, 8 pm Cairo opera nights are regrettably not what they used to be 16 years ago when the new opera house opened its doors to the public on 10 October 1988. At the time, everyone was under the spell of novelty, realising that a new era was beginning in Egypt's world of culture, with many foreign companies presenting their shows and local audiences happily attending most of the festivities. It was a time when the opera's Main Hall was a sanctuary for opera, music and ballet, a time when audiences showed respect and appreciation for the auditorium. Starting with the extraordinary Japanese Kabuki, the public was granted superb shows by the Gulbenkian Ballet, the Antonio Gades, the Ballet Met, the London Festival Ballet, the Russian Ballet, the American Show Boat and many other remarkable performances. With audiences increasing in number and shows losing in distinction, the Main Hall has today turned into a meeting place for large families and friends, with numerous children, mostly under seven, standing on the seats, munching on their chipsies and drinking juice, undaunted by the ushers' futile attempts to convince them that eating and drinking in the theatre is prohibited. The audience always being right, however, the ushers finally submit, and both youngsters and grown-ups pursue their eating and drinking spree and the children keep jumping on the seats. The opera's ambiance is certainly not as elegant or as refined as it used to be, with people talking loudly while the show is on and mobiles ringing in spite of all precautions undertaken by the opera, with women hiding their water bottles in their handbags and men in T-shirts carrying their Baraka in plastic bags, drinking avidly when they think no one is watching. One is inclined to ask whether the opera house is still the "Opera House" or whether today's public is turning it into another third-rate theatre. Carrying water bottles in handbags would have been unthinkable in the years when satin and furs prevailed. But furs are gone and so are velvet and satin and ties: they have been replaced by black trousers, washed-out jeans and T-shirts. Likewise, the opera's entire atmosphere has changed: the Main Hall is not a sanctuary for great art any more, but a stage for all kinds of spectacles designed to satisfy the taste of the general public -- which brings us once again to the question that has been asked several times over the years: should an opera house elevate the public's cultural standards or should it stoop to the level of the masses? There never really was an answer to that question and opinions are still miles apart. Four days ago, the opening of the Opera Ballet Company's three night performances of Lorkiana and was a vivid example of the Main Hall's decline: we had a plethora of children, of juice and water bottles, of potato chips and cookies, and youngsters avidly crunching their goodies under the very eyes of their protectively smiling parents and the helpless ushers. It was the first day of the feast following the holy month of Ramadan and everyone was visibly rejoicing, "so why spoil their fun on this lovely day", as one guest put it... The show was presented this time with recorded music, preluded with Marks and Marquina's Lorkiana, based on Spanish Malaguena and Granada themes and on poems by Garcia Lorca, and produced according to a libretto and choreography by Mark Minatskanian. The beautiful young prima ballerina Nelly Karim was brilliantly cast in the role of the ravishing Soledad who, as the curtain opens to 12 solemn tolls of a lonely bell, is seen kneeling in prayer at the head of her dead sweetheart: she is surrounded on the dark stage by women in black capes carrying small dramatically lit lamps. As the eerie echo of the last stroke subsides, the lights are turned off and mournful dimness obscures the stage. Male and female voices chant their melancholic "Malaguena" as spotlights illuminate the scene, bathing it in red hues. Female dancers in long red costumes fall into the arms of men in black attire, ignoring the shocked exclamations of the women in black capes. The latter make a quick exit, while the former are joined by other couples. Forty days of mourning have elapsed and Soledad is still unable to forget her loved one. As the springtime sun rises on the red horizon and her many friends beckon her to take part in their rejoicing, Soledad decides to forget her sadness and flings herself into a fiery Spanish solo. She then meets the young toreador, excellently performed by star-dancer Ahmed Yehia (who starred in Youssef Chahine's latest film, Alexandria-New York ), and she seems to overcome her grief as she becomes attracted to him at a corrida. He has elegantly killed the bull and conquered the crowds, and is now on the way to conquering Soledad. They dance an exceptionally delightful pas-de-deux, but when they part she seems once again obsessed by her dead lover. Perfectly interpreted by Ahmed Saleh, his ghost regularly appears, asking Soledad to join him, while she is torn between the buried past and the living present, and her loving toreador does not know what to make of her moods. In the end she reaches the point of no return: her steps grow weary and anguish overcomes her: she flings herself into one last dance, defying despair and expressing her love for Torero. But her fortitude is of no avail and she finally drops to her death, while the young matador mourns her departure. Ballet Lorkiana, as adopted from the name Garcia Lorca, is no newcomer to Cairo opera's stage. It was performed as long ago as 20 years ago at the Gumhouriya Theatre, before the new opera house was built, and has continued to be performed, each time with different interpretations. It has always been a much-loved ballet for its dynamic choreography, its superbly nostalgic tunes, its harmony and exotic orchestration. If the first part of the evening was dedicated to a superbly sad romance, the second part was dedicated to a "great night" of joy and festivity with Salah Jahin and Sayed Mekkawi's puppet-dance , choreographed and directed by Abdel-Moneim Kamel and Magdy Saber. A pioneering work in the field of puppet-theatre it was originally broadcast on Egyptian TV in the early 1960s, winning the appreciation of viewers who, until this day, continue to enjoy recordings or new interpretations of the spectacle and its musical and vocal themes. When Abdel-Moneim Kamel decided to turn the puppet-show into a one- act dance, he liberated the puppets from their strings, adding a new introduction written by Mustafa El-Damarani and a musical arrangement by Gamal Salama, with rhythmic touches enhancing the musical dynamics. The dance opens with the appearance of Aragoz, the clown, saluting Mekkawi and Jahin, while inviting them to come and see the new show and opening the curtain at the same time. The backdrop is a lively stage reproduction of a mulid festival, animated by peddlers, dancers, fun fairs, singers, puppets and the common village people, granting the audience a fabulous "big night" of song and dance beautifully performed by the corps de ballet with many of the company's star dancers. In the end, the stage, the hall, the dancers and the audience were showered with confetti pouring, like raindrops, from the ceiling, in masses of shining tiny paper chips. At this point, water bottles and mobiles, cookies and chipsies were forgotten and members of the audience realised they were living a feast that made everybody happy.
