Dozens of children have signed up for the Damanhour Opera House's artistic activities. Al-Ahram Weekly sees what has been acheived so far, and finds that the teaching centre has been boosted by the popularity of Egypt's first opera house outside a major city, writes Rania Khallaf The new Opera House branch in Damanhour, the city centre of the Beheira governorate, is proving more popular than ever expected. The renovated Opera House building was opened by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak in May 2009 and is the first Opera House to be located in a rural governorate. In its first one and half-years it has settled comfortably into its surroundings and attracted far larger audiences than anticipated. Abdel-Moneim Kamel, chairman of the Cairo Opera House, wanted to present the Ballet Zorba for the opening performance so that the residents of Damanhour could become acquainted with this most sublime of the arts, a type of entertainment that was completely unfamiliar to most of the city's residents. Kamel also planned to put on classical music concerts with tickets at very reasonable prices so as to encourage the people of Damanhour to attend. Kamel had a second string to his bow. He planned to attract larger audiences through pop concerts so local people could hear some of today's biggest stars including Hani Shaker, Khaled Selim and Medhat Saleh, all of whose concerts were fully booked. The Damanhour Opera House ranks third after Opera Houses in Cairo and Alexandria. "Surprisingly enough the revenues coming from Damanhour are now equal to, and in some cases exceed, the Alexandria branch revenues," Mohamed Mounir, head of Damanhour Opera House, told Al-Ahram Weekly. Last month bands from Lebanon, the United States and Kazakhstan appeared in Danamhour to packed audiences. To celebrate Children's Day last week, the Alexandria Children's Choir led by George Beshri held two concert performnaces on the day in response to the huge demand for seats. The concerts were attended by 1,200 children from Damanhour and adjacent areas, who heard popular old children songs by Afaf Radi, as well as several others. It was amazingt o see women of all ages so eager to attend concerts at relatively late times in the evening, something totally new to the traditions of women in small town and rural areas, Mounir said. Built on an Islamic architectural model, the Damanhour Opera House building was constructed in 1930 in the reign of King Fouad, and was called the Farouk Cinema andTheatre. The beautiful building is surrounded by a well laid-out garden. Mounir also praised the unexpected turnout by the children of Damanhour for the classes at the Developing Talent Centre (DTC) attached to the Opera House. Dozens of children aged five to 17 are now enrolled in choral, piano, oud (lute) and guitar classes, as well as ballet. The DTC was originally founded more than 15 years ago at the Cairo Opera House, where hundreds of children have developed their talents in music, ballet and modern dance, and singing. "The DTC graduates in Damanhour are the artists of tomorrow," Mounir said. "They will help enlighten their society and enrich it with a positive cultural outlook and ideas. And this is the real significance of the whole thing."
