photos: Ayman Barayez A rare discovery took place at the Arab Music Institute in Ramses Street, where hidden musical treasures were discovered in a secret room under the stage; the rare pieces date back 80-100 years. The treasure includes some 50 paintings and photographs of Arab music icons such as Dawoud Hosni, Sheikh Salama Hegazi, Ibrahim Osman, Mahmoud El-Hefni, composer Zakaria Ahmed as well as international composers like Mozart, Beethoven and Verdi. This, in addition to a number of rare traditional musical instruments and photos of the Arab Music Institute in the 1920s. According to the Director of the Cairo Opera House Ines Abdel-Dayeim, "I decided to call a meeting with Arab music history experts to assess the value of this musical treasure to be shown at the Opera House Museum and to tour Egypt's various regions through a series of exhibitions." More news from the Cairo Opera House: Part of the busy schedule of the newly named Minister of Culture Minister Saber Arab was set aside for honouring Ratiba El-Hefni, who was the first female director of the Cairo Opera House and the first dean of the Arab Music Institute, in the Opera House Cultural Salon organised by artist Amin El-Serafi. She was honoured for her long and rich musical career which went on for half a century. The event was crowned by the presence of the current Director of the Opera House Ines Abdel-Dayiem, close friends of El-Hefni such as writers Naem El-Baz, Amal Bakir, media figure Wagdi El-Hakim, Iraqi oud player and composer Nasseer Shamma as well as a bevy of opera artists and musicians. During the celebration, Arab granted her a certificate of recognition and kissed her head, pointing out that the award is given to every Egyptian woman who achieved tremendous success in her domain. Last week the fourth round of the American University in Cairo's media roundtable series "Behind the Headlines" addressed Egypt's first free presidential elections, analysing the results and forecasting the outcome of the upcoming run-off. The programme, "Presidential Election: Analysis, Alliances, and Forecasts," featured AUC faculty members Samer Atallah, assistant professor of economics; Samer Suleiman, associate professor of political economy; Amr Hamzawy, professor of public policy and administration and Ashraf El-Sherif, adjunct political science professor. The discussion, moderated by Hafez El-Mirazi, director of AUC's Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism at AUC's Tahrir Square campus, was attended by Egyptian and foreign journalists. photo: Abdel-Hamid Eid Metro cinema, located downtown, witnessed the premiere of the film Hasal Kheir (No Harm Done), starring Saad El-Soghayar and Mohamed Ramadan, Aiten Amer, Lotfi Labib and Amina, directed by Ismail Farouk, in the presence of a number of film stars to congratulate the cast of the film. The 15th Ismailia International Festival for Documentary and Short Films, presided over by Amir El-Emry, will start on 23 June and go on till 28 June. Organised by the National Centre for Cinema, it boasts unprecedented Arab participation. The festival includes 19 films from 11 countries within its four competitions with long and short documentaries, short feature and animation films. El-Emry stated that Arab countries participating in the festival include Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Bahrain, Emirates and Jordan as well as Egypt. The jury festival will include Jordanian filmmaker Mahmoud Al-Massad and Iraqi filmmaker Qais Al-Zubaidi. On the fringes of the 66th festival of the Catholic Centre for Cinema, the screening of the film Microphone took place at the headquarters of the Catholic Centre in the presence of its head, Father Boutros Daniel, followed by a seminar with the cast of the film. Microphone, directed by Ahmed Abdallah, features Khaled Abul-Naga, Youssra El-Louzi, Menna Shalabi, Hani Adel and Salwa Mohamed Ali. Microphone won several prestigious awards from the Dubai, Carthage, Istanbul and Cairo International Film festivals. The festival honoured actress Elham Shahin for her cinematic career, actor Ahmed Helmi was honoured for his role in the film X-Large, actress Hind Sabri for the film Asmaa, set designer Anas Abu Seif for the film Al-Musafir (The Traveller), script writer Amr Salama for the film Asmaa as well as film critic Magda Moris and cinematographer Ayman Abul-Makarem. Singer Ghada Ragab performed Shadia's beautiful song Ya Habebty Ya Masr (Egypt, My Love).
