400 years of passion: Opera’s journey to Oman

STORY BY GEORGINA BENISON -
PHOTOS BY KHALID AL BUSAIDI -

Last week was a very important milestone for the Royal Opera House Muscat complex, as the building growing up on the other side of the road for the past four years has finally been completed and opened.

A very special performance was given to inaugurate the grand opening of the Royal Opera: House of Musical Arts’ auditorium, foyers and exhibition space in its state-of-the-arts building. Then, on Thursday last week the building was officially opened to the public with an exhibition, appropriately about opera through the ages, from the famous Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Entitled “Opera - 400 Years of Passion”, it tells the story of opera’s journey to Oman.

What made this experience especially informative and enriching was the use of headphones which are remotely triggered as viewers walk through the galleries. The brochure claims this is a ‘world class sound experience provided by Sennheiser. The company’s dynamic GuidePORT headphone technology changes as one explores the cities and objects creating an evocative and fully immersive sound experience’. More than 200 objects have been brought to Oman from across Europe to celebrate the story of opera, many of the pieces leaving Europe for the first time in hundreds of years. The exhibition includes a comprehensive array of beautiful artefacts - oil paintings, marble busts, costumes, textiles, glass and china ware.

Members of the public will enter the darkened gallery to be greeted by a Venetian scene from the Renaissance period where opera first evolved. Focusing on Monteverdi’s last opera, ‘L’Incoronazione di Poppea’ of 1642, an extract will be heard as one looks at a magnificently painted sixteenth-century harpsichord, and other instruments from the seventeenth-century. A trip to eighteenth-century London reminds us that the famous German composer, George Frederic Handel actually made London his home. His 1711 Italian opera, ‘Rinaldo’ accompanies historical theatre costumes of the period, worn by divas and castratos. A miniature reproduction model of the mechanisms of a baroque stage was installed, allowing visitors themselves to activate the original staging of ‘Rinaldo’.

The journey to the Austrian capital Vienna highlighted Mozart’s huge influence on late eighteenth-century opera, in German as well as Italian. The centre piece features a reproduction of a real 1788 fortepiano – with the black and white keys reversed – from Mozart’s time. On Thursday the period instrument was played for invitees by a fortepiano specialist from Amsterdam, appropriately including Mozart’s Piano Sonata K.331 in A Major, featuring his famous Rondo a la Turk! His comic opera, ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’(Marriage of Figaro) was heard, as fashionable period costumes and engravings of the time could be seen.

It should be said that information boards in English and Arabic were large and clearly visible, while smaller details were given in white-on-black which was trickier to read.

In Teatro alla Scala, Milan, the viewer moves to the 19th century and the iconic operas of Verdi. The increased use of chorus is explored via headphones with ‘Nabucco’ and the original manuscript of his famous chorus, ‘Va Pensiero’ from 1842 – which later became Italy’s unofficial Anthem!

The Victoria and Albert Museum London’s, ‘Opera: Passion, Power and Politics’ chose Richard Wagner’s 1861 Music-Drama, ‘Tannhäuser’ to represent Paris in their 2017 installation. A gown worn by Napoleon’s wife, Empress Eugenie was on display, together with some precious sketches by French Impressionist, Edgar Degas to show the increasing involvement of Ballet in Parisian Grand Opera. Finally – and added especially for this 2019 display – one arrives at the Royal Opera House Muscat. There is one iconic production which can adequately sum up its achievement so far since its inauguration in 2011. In October that year the renowned conductor Placido Domingo – who declared the House to be “a cultural gem” - opened the season with Puccini’s grand opera, “Turandot”. The opera originally had its posthumous premiere firmly in the 20th century in La Scala Milan in 1926, but here it was directed by the acclaimed Italian Franco Zeffirelli and performed by ‘Fondazione Arena di Verona’. Extracts from the performance can be seen and heard on a huge screen, along with costumes and photographs from that iconic performance, revived in 2015.

The establishment of ROHM by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said heralded a new phase in the cultural advancement of Oman’s Renaissance since 1970 and the growing role of Muscat on the international opera scene.

The House of Musical Arts inaugural exhibition is open until 14th March and is open daily from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm (excluding Fridays and public holidays). It is just three omr for an experience which one cannot afford to miss.