CAIRO - Happy Easter everybody! The Easter Bunny couldn't make it so… he called his friend Santa Claus, who ironically got the call, although mobile networks have been really bad lately. I'm not sure about North Pole Telecom though. Anyway, Santa came to the rescue and brought along some friends – the reindeers, an elf… the Cairo Celebration Choir and the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Nayer Nagui and accompanied by members of the Cairo Opera Company. No chocolate eggs in sight but we got a Christmas Concert instead at the Main Hall of the Cairo Opera House, on Saturday, December 17. Thanks to choir member Marcelle Sameh, the programme was posted on Facebook days before the concert. She also mentioned which songs the choir was going to take part in. This choir works so hard and that's what makes it a very good one. In case you didn't know, it is coached by Nayer. When Nayer joined the choir and orchestra on stage, he started by giving a brief speech. He asked everyone to stand in a minute of mourning in support of “our brothers and friends who are being killed in Tahrir Square, so we can live and continue presenting art”. Well said and done Nayer. Speaking of brief, in a brief phone call earlier a friend of mine told me that this might happen and although he's not even in the business – Ahmed's a boxer – he was right. The performance started with an instrumental – ‘The Sleeping Bear Waltz'. I think they got the name wrong because it should be ‘The Hibernating Bear Waltz'. After all it's the season to be sleeping and… I think I got the name wrong because it's actually called ‘The Sleeping Beauty Waltz'. Splendid intro. The lady with a sweet voice, whom I'd like to see on stage more often, soprano Jacqueline Rafik, was the first soloist and she sang ‘Holiday Pops', bits of four popular Christmas songs. They included ‘Santa Claus is coming to Town', which was sung by the choir and Jacqueline's rendition of the classic ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas'. Baritone Emad Adel was next with ‘God Rest You Merry Gentlemen'. He has a good voice but his pronunciation made it hard to understand the words. He also sounded as if he were falling asleep while singing! In her spare time soprano Dina Eskander NEVER makes me lasagna. Instead she sings! No wonder she sounds better all the time. That evening she impressed us with ‘Panis Angelicus'. As for baritone Moustafa Mohamed, he gave one of his best performances singing ‘Angels We Have Heard on High'. Bravo sir. Soprano, Mona Rafla, elegantly went on stage to sing ‘Carol of the Bells' Wasn't that supposed to be called ‘Carole of the King'? Sorry but, as Carole King said in her song, “It's Too Late” to change this sentence! It was also too late to fix the microphone and Mona was hardly heard. She is an opera singer and has the powerful voice for it but while singing that style no-one should belt it out. I wanted to kill the sound creature myself. Since it was a Christmas concert it was very appropriate that ‘The Christmas Song' should be sung and baritone Elhamy Amin did just that. He added a touch of soul to it, which gave it a peculiar flavour. Is there a doctor in the house? A pregnant lady went on stage to sing ‘When A Child is Born' out of all the Christmas numbers! Although soprano Dalia Farouk is seven months pregnant, she gave an exceptional performance as usual. Dalia is one little lady with a big voice and she truly captures everyone with her charismatic presence. Bass singer Reda el-Wakil is one of the most popular opera singers and listening to him makes me wonder how he reaches those very deep notes. That evening he sang ‘Jesu Bambino'. It was time to scare Santa back to the chimney – yes soprano Iman Mostafa gave her rendition (she is the only one capable of giving such a rendition) of ‘Ave Maria', the Bach-Gounod one. A bit too heavy for that number if you ask me. The moment I was waiting for was next – Sobhi Bidair's performance of Bing Crosby's classic ‘White Christmas'. I ran out of the words that describe what a brilliant tenor he is. People should know that singing doesn't depend only on a good voice and proper techniques, as it also takes a lot of emotions to convey the song's message. The other factors that make a performer a good one include charisma, stage attitude, confidence, musical sense and of course good pronunciation. Unfortunately, we have only one Sobhi Bidair. After the intermission, tenor Walid Korayem appeared to sing ‘Agnus Dei'. Well done Walid. The return of the sound creature… in other words he messed things up again and Dina Eskander wasn't well heard while singing her two numbers. Nevertheless, ‘Jingle Bells' was loudly applauded. Now, let's move to the labour room… Dalia Farouk was back to sing ‘The 12 Days of Pregnancy'. I mean ‘The 12 Days of Christmas'. The crowd loved her, although the sound problem was imposed on her number. Elhamy Amin followed with a personal favourite ‘Let It Snow' and did a very good job. That style suits him the most, especially with the orchestra sounding more like a big band. Incidentally, many of the numbers performed were beautifully arranged by Nayer. Next was someone who amazed me… mezzo Gala el-Hadidi, whom I can call ‘an international artist'. She took us to ‘Winter Wonderland' as she stood there in a Diva-like attitude – confident but not arrogant, with a big smile and a mature voice. ‘The First Noel' was performed by the choir members, who deserve to get a lot of credit. The strings in that number just killed me. Outstanding. I loved the orchestra as well. Reda el-Wakil excelled with ‘Ave Maria', the Pappalardo one. Very melancholy, yet very beautiful. It seems that Reda stayed on stage for the following number… Oh… it was Gala, who has a voice almost as deep as Reda's. Along with Dina Eskander she sang ‘Abends, Will Ich Schlafen' (Hansel and Gretel Duet) and they gave a lovely performance. It takes two graduates of the German School to sing that! ‘O Holy Night' was performed by Mona Rafla and luckily this time she was clearly heard and enjoyed too. That made up for the technical problem she faced earlier. As Sobhi and Jacqueline were about to go on stage to sing ‘I Believe', Nayer gave another brief word. He said that Christmas has a special message of peace, joy and love to all human beings, not just Christians. He mentioned that everybody's working together, Muslims, Christians, Egyptians and foreigners – this is EGYPT. Bravo again Nayer. As for the song, I will just say ‘superb'. Iman Mostafa and Walid Korayem were the final soloists and actually I liked their performance of ‘Adeste Fideles'. The last number was sung by the choir – ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas' and it was loudly applauded, just like the soloists and Nayer when they went on again to take a bow, which was met with a standing ovation. It was a sold-out concert with a very pleasant atmosphere. On my way home I was thinking what will I make fun of in the review? Then I realised that my good friend and amazing percussionist Saadat Fouad didn't miss a single bump on the road while driving me home – her driving deserves to be made fun of. Haha. Time for me to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE. Send me your Christmas gifts to: [email protected]
