Domingo opens Dubai Opera – Interactive exhibition features Bjork’s work

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People visit Dubai’s new opera house on the eve of its official opening on Aug 30 in the Gulf emirate. (AFP)
People visit Dubai’s new opera house on the eve of its official opening on Aug 30 in the Gulf emirate. (AFP)

DUBAI, Sept 1, (Agencies): Spanish tenor Placido Domingo performed Wednesday at the opening of Dubai Opera, a venue the emirate hopes will boost cultural life in the Gulf business hub, organisers said.

The 2,000-seat opera house was packed for the opening after tickets sold out months in advance, leaving many scrambling to buy them on the black market in the days preceding the event.

Domingo launched into the event with a series of performances including Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” and the Broadway musical “West Side Story”.

The venue will also host local shows, with popular Emirati singer Hussain Al Jassmi performing there in October.

During rehearsals, Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum visited the site where he greeted the Spanish tenor, according to a video posted on the Dubai government’s Twitter account.

“Cultural development was always present among our development plans and vision for the future… We have provided the infrastructure to support it,” he said in remarks published on his website.

Organisers have said that an official opening gala will be held later when work on the venue is completed.

Prepare

On Tuesday, the Dubai Opera management organised a media tour as workers struggled to prepare the theatre for Domingo’s performance.

The opera sits at the foot of Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, which was built by the same developer, Emaar Properties.

In a nod to Dubai’s long history as a port city, the opera house is shaped like a dhow, a traditional wooden boat used for centuries in Gulf waters.

But the ultra-modern venue can transform into three modes, operating as a theatre, concert hall and a flat-floored hall suitable for banquets and weddings.

In the space of decades, Dubai has transformed itself into a centre for trade, travel and tourism.

Spending trillions of dollars earned from oil exports, it put itself on the map with luxury resorts, glitzy skyscrapers and artificial islands shaped as palm trees and a world map.

But its cultural scene remained low profile in the business-oriented emirate.

Jasper Hope, chief executive of Dubai Opera, said the opening represents “the start of a new journey for arts and culture in Dubai”.

Opera remains very much a cultural import for Gulf Arabs — the only other opera house in the region is in the Omani capital Muscat.

But Dubai’s population is predominantly foreign, including a sizable Western community.

Also:

LONDON: London’s Somerset House is hosting the European premiere of “Bjork Digital,” an immersive exhibition of digital and video works produced by the famous Icelandic singer and a team of visual artists and programmers.

Visitors to the exhibition are invited to engage with the works through the latest virtual reality (VR) technology. The organizers say Bjork, 50, believes VR provides a private theatrical experience, allowing audiences to connect with her in a unique way.

“She approaches things as an artist. So she’s always been driven by an innate curiosity I think, to sort of look at the world in a different way, to try and express herself in a different way and to sort of take audiences with her on that journey,” said producer Paul Clay.

“If you are open to that and you’re prepared to relax and experience the world along side her, then you will be taken to some quite extraordinary places.”

With a career spanning more than two decades, Bjork is known for her daring approaches to music, performance and fashion.

The exhibition brings to life a wide range of subjects, from the barren, windswept landscapes of her home country to the slippery insides of Bjork’s own mouth as she sings the track “Mouthmantra.”

Some of the other highlights include “Black Lake” — an immersive cinema film with a bespoke surround-sound system, and a 360-degree, one-to-one recital of “Stonemilker,” the first track of Bjork’s album “Vulnicura.”

“It’s a journey. We take the audience on a journey through the process of “Vulnicura.” So we are creating a VR world, if you like, for this particular album,” said Clay.

“You will see a music artist create on one level, an album full of great music. On another level you’ll see an individual go through the pain and torture of loss and come to terms with that over the course of an hour and a quarter, and on another level you will see technology used to blow your mind in terms of how we can experience the world that’s around us,” he added.

“Bjork Digital” runs from Sept 1 to Oct 23.

LONDON: The first major retrospective of British prog rock giants Pink Floyd will be held at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum next year, featuring previously unseen concert footage, the museum said Wednesday.

The show will feature 350 exhibits, including instruments, sets, psychedelic prints and objects used for the band’s ground-breaking album covers.

A floating pink animal — a tribute to the cover of the band’s 1977 album “Animals” — could be seen above the museum on Wednesday as it made the announcement.

Museum director Martin Roth said the V and A was well placed to honour a group that “is as recognisable for its unique visual imagery as for its music”.

“Pink Floyd is an impressive and enduring British design story of creative success,” he said.

The museum said the show would be “an immersive, multi-sensory and theatrical journey through Pink Floyd’s extraordinary world”.

“The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains” will run from May 13 to October 1 next year.

It follows the museum’s hugely successful David Bowie retrospective in 2013 which attracted 300,000 visitors in London before embarking on a world tour.

Pink Floyd was set up by four Cambridge University students in 1965 and has sold more than 200 million albums around the world, including 1979’s “The Wall”.

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