David Blake, Al-Ahram Weekly 's long-serving music critic whose death in 2002 deprived readers of his regular weekly take on Cairo's music scene, served always with aplomb, was born on 16 June, 1916. To mark the 90th anniversary of his birth we (...)
David Blake sees illumination
The Masonic Funeral Music; Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in C minor; Requiem; Mozart; Soloists , piano, Dalia Farouk, soprano, Gihan Fayed, alto, George Wanis, tenor, Reda El-Wakil, bass; Cairo Symphony Orchestra, (...)
David Blake listens to something heraldic from on high
Summer recital, Kiyonori Sokabe (trumpet) and Yutako Oya (piano), Japan Festival 2001, 13 September, Small Hall, Cairo Opera House
The heraldic element was ever present in the music of Kiyonori (...)
David Blake soaks up the family fiesta from Port Said
Tanbora Family Troupe; Cairo Opera House, Open Air Theatre, 25 July
Now come the singing boys of Port Said. They are short on soft tones and lack any of the velvet touch, but their ammunition is (...)
By David Blake
Cairo Opera Ballet Company and Cairo Opera Orchestra; Hamlet and Lorkiana (choreography: Mark Mnatsakanian); Danses Qu'on Croises (choreography: Thierry Malandain); Ivan Filev, conductor; Abdel-Moneim Kamel, artistic supervision; (...)
By David Blake
Igor Stravinsky, Mavra; Cairo Opera Company and Cairo Opera Orchestra; Abdel-Moneim Mubarak (sets and costumes); Teimuraz Abashidze (director); Ivan Filev (conductor); Gomhouriya Theatre: 9 February
Why oh why Mavra? Stravinsky takes (...)
By David Blake
Min Misr Da'awtu Ibni (); Nagui Youssef Zumur (composer), Sherif Mohieddin (conductor) and Nabila Erian (director); Main Hall: Cairo Opera House, 20 December
These days Christmas heavenly bodies are everywhere -- in myth, legend, (...)
By David Blake
Christmas concert; Nevin Allouba (soprano), Mohamed Abul-Kheir (tenor), Raouf Zeidan (baritone), Ashraf Sweilam (bass) and Greig Martin (piano); Small Hall, Cairo Opera House: 14 December
This is the beginning of it -- the mystic (...)
By David Blake
JS Bach is the eternal musical take-away. He is always there. And fortunately there is always something worthwhile to move off with. True, sometimes he is as dry as dust, but can you imagine the world without him? Like dust he is (...)
By David Blake
Many things whirl: butterflies, ballerinas, bats and insects, the Holy Ghost Himself. The entire planet whirls, helpless, through a cloud of detritus produced by earth's best friend, man himself. But man does not whirl much. Far and (...)