For
almost 100 years, and In spite of limited technical facilities,
Cairo Opera house continued to present foreign Operas produced
by visiting companies. These productions were of a standard
comparable to any staged in the opera houses of Rome, Vienna
and Paris. It was not until after the 1952 Revolution that
the Ministry of Culture seriously considered the encouragement
of Egyptian artists.
Franz
Lehar's the Merry Widow and Verdi's La Traviata were performed
in Arabic. A training Centre was founded where Gilan Rathle,
was among the most eminents voice professors, coaching and
teaching many who were later to become renown opera singers.
Graduates of this centre formed the nucleus of the present
Cairo Opera Company.
In
1968, the Company with The Cairo Opera Ballet Company, The
Cairo Opera Choir and the Cairo Symnhony Orchestra staged
its first production Gluck's Orfeo, starring: Ratiba El
Hefny, Violette Makar, Amira Kamel, Ghalia Rashed, Awatef
El Sharkawy, Rejina Yousssef and Nabila Erlan with conductor
Ahmed Ebeid and director Vittorio Feoretto. Local performers
continued to present international operas including a number
of male opera singers including Hassan Kamy, Gaber El Beltagui,
Sobhi Bedair, Reda El Wakil, Yousef Sabagh, Reda El Shenawy,
Clude Rathle among others.
Today,
the Cairo Opera Company consists of 38 soloists such as
Neveen Allouba, Iman Moustafa, Tahya Shams El Din, Raouf
Zaidan, Gihan Fayed, Mona Rafla, Nesreen Roushdy, Walid
Koraym, Mohamed Abu El kheir among others.
The
Cairo Opera Company's repertoire consists of: Orfeo, Aida,
The Dancing Years, La Boheme, II trovatore, Cavalleria Rusticana,
Pagllacci, Rigoletto, Carmen, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Le
Nozze Di Figaro and Don Giovanni.
Many
of the Company's members have participated in international
opera productions and festivals and have received numerous
prizes and awards.
