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Royal Opera House announces new 2019-20 season

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Royal-Opera-House-Muscat
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Muscat: The Royal Opera House Muscat announced programmes for the 2019-2020 season on Tuesday.


His Highness Sayyid Kamil bin Fahd al Said, Member of ROHM’s Board of Directors, said that one-month sale of 15% on tickets will be offered at the moment of opening box offices of the upcoming season. He pointed out that the cash purchase of tickets will not be accepted and will be collected only through debit cards of all kinds, electronic wallets, cheques or through the website of the House. Meanwhile, new Omani brands have joined Opera Galleria this time with 47% as a total number of Omani stores.


At the press conference held by ROH, His Highness said that as part of the increasing number of visitors to the House of Musical Arts, three new characteristics (features) have been studied. There is a plan to provide 200 car parking at the Musical Arts building, while work is going on to allocate a number of paid parking at the Royal Opera House in coordination with the Oman National Transport Company (Mwasalat).


“I must say that I am truly thrilled now to present highlights from ROHM’s brilliant new season, beginning with an impressive roster of five major operas.”  highlighted Umberto Fanni, Director General.


Below is the full programme list


OPERAS


Georges Bizet’s Carmen opens season 2019-2020 with the original grand sets from ROHM’s specially commissioned production for the season in 2011.


Carmen returns to the Royal Opera House Muscat with the Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Colón Buenos Aires conducted by Antonello Allemandi and staged by Gianni Quaranta, with the participation of the great tenor José Cura in the role of Don José, mezzosoprano Elena Maximova appearing as Carmen, Anita Hartig as Micaëla and with a brilliant new choreography by the Antonio Gadès Company.


As well as Carmen, the new season brings four additional operas:


 The Story of Kai and Gerda, the famous Russian romantic opera by Sergey Banevich, performed by the world famous Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow.


 An ROHM coproduction with Opéra de Monte Carlo of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème staged by Jean-Louis Grinda with the participation of Celso Albelo as Rodolfo and Irina Lungu as Mimì. Stefano Finzi conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of Opera Monte Carlo.


 Gaetano Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, in stunning period costume, coproduced by ROHM with Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, Opéra Lausanne and Abao Olbe Bilbao with Olga Peretyatko in the title role, Erwin Schrott as Henry VIII and Maxim Mironov playing Lord Percy. The director of the production is Stefano Mazzonis di Parafrera and the conductor Giampaolo Bisanti.


 An exciting new ROHM production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte set in Oman with Albina Shagimuratova as the Queen of the Night, Antonio Poli as Tamino and Markus Werba as Papageno.


Among the season’s operas, the new ROHM’s production of Die Zauberflöte has special importance. Artistically staged by Davide Livermore who designed ROHM’s acclaimed coproduction of Lakmé last season, this innovative production is set in Oman, where it creates connections between the Arabic cultural heritage of the Sultanate and the universal themes in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.


After its acclaimed premiere in Muscat in March 2019, ROHM’s co-production of Lakmé will go on tour, travelling first to the National Centre for Performing Arts, Beijing, with performances between the 4th and 11th of April 2020.


OPERA FOR FAMILIES


Each season, the Royal Opera House Muscat welcomes children and their families with high quality productions especially designed for them.


In season 2019-20, three operas customised for students and families are presented:


 Maurice Ravel’s fanciful L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (The Child and the Spells), performed by Opéra de Lyon.


 Gaetano Donizetti’s comic opera L’Elisir d’Amore (The Elixir of Love), performed by Teatro Sociale of Como As.Li.Co.


 Gioacchino Rossini’s suspenseful farce, L’Inganno Felice (The Fortunate Deception), performed by the Rossini Opera Festival under the masterful direction of internationally acclaimed director, Graham Vick.


BALLETS


The season’s two major ballets come from the East as the Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow enacts Tchaikovsky’s famous work, Onegin, and the National Ballet of China presents Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker in a fusion of Chinese and Western cultural traditions.


ORCHESTRAS, CONDUCTORS, SOLOISTS AND SINGER STARS


In 2019-20, ROHM again presents world-class orchestras, conductors, instrumental soloists and singers of exceptional calibre:


 José Cura conducts Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Colón Buenos Aires.


 Myung Whun Chung leads the Filarmonica della Scala in concerts with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 played by Russian pianist Alexander Romanovsky, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, and Dvořák’s New World Symphony, No. 9.


 Philipp Chizhevsky conducts the orchestra of Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow in an operatic concert with singers and chorus.


 Gianandrea Noseda leads the London Symphony Orchestra in classic Russian works, featuring pianist Denis Matsuev.


 The Vienna Classical Players play waltz music, polkas and old favourites composed by Johann Strauss and other well-known Viennese composers. Four couples perform the dances on stage.


 ROHM’s annual Pipe Organ Concert displays the power and beauty of the grand instrument that graces the stage in a magnificent concert celebrating organ music through the ages.


 In a thrilling opera gala, world-famous baritone Leo Nucci performs masterpiece arias from Verdi’s operas.


 Award-winning mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins, and the great American baritone, Thomas Hampson, perform in a gala recital featuring operatic arias and popular songs from Broadway.


SPECTACULAR SHOWS, JAZZ


ROHM’s 2019-2020 line up of shows and jazz from around the world incudes:


 Mughal-e-Azam, the smash-hit Indian musical about the rebellious defiance of Prince Salim, son of the great Mughal Emperor, Akbar.


 Che Malambo an Argentinian dance spectacular with fast-paced zapeteo footwork inspired by the rhythm of galloping horses and performed with gaucho machismo.


 The Sukhishvili Georgian National Ballet with a unique, energetic ballet that combines folk dance traditions with classical ballet and contemporary dance.


 Military Music: Oman and the World, a proud display of military pageantry with hundreds of men and women from Oman’s military bands performing in colourful dress uniform, with musicians from Mexico and Turkey opening another window on the world.


 Chick Corea, the legendary American jazz composer and fusion pianist performing on two nights.


 Japan’s Kodo drummers beating enormous stationary drums with impressive athletic strength and playing portable drums with rapid-fire skill.


 From Taiwan’s U-Theatre, Beyond Time, an immersive multi-layered, three-dimensional experience themed on the movement of the planets.


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