
June 25, 5:30-7pm

14 June - 07 July



PROGRAMME
Abu Dhabi Festival 2022
Gifted Emirati composer Ihab Darwish’s new work, in collaboration with Emmy-winning composer John Debney and Academy Award-winning composer David Shire, celebrates the historic opening of the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi. Bringing together top international composers, musicians and vocal ensembles from Christian, Jewish and Muslim backgrounds, the symphony celebrates unity and peace amongst different faiths.
Gifted Emirati composer Ihab Darwish’s new work, in collaboration with Emmy-winning composer John Debney and Academy Award-winning composer David Shire, celebrates the historic opening of the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi. Bringing together top international composers, musicians and vocal ensembles from Christian, Jewish and Muslim backgrounds, the symphony celebrates unity and peace amongst different faiths.
Aida is one of Teatro Real’s most monumental and emblematic productions. A restored and updated version revives the brilliant composer Giuseppe Verdi’s powerful tale of love and betrayal. Conducted by Maestro Nicola Luisotti, with stage direction and set and costume design by Hugo de Ana, the opera features star performers soprano Krassimira Stoyanova, tenor Piotr Beczała, baritone Carlos Álvarez and mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton.
Exploring the majesty, might, and mystery of nature through both arresting and evocative music and theatrical effects, accomplished mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato takes audiences on an emotional journey, performed by the unique historically informed instrumentation of orchestra il Pomo d’Oro with French stage director Marie Lambert-Le Bihan.
Beginning with a visual art exhibition, literature festival and musical performance, Abu Dhabi Festival is partnering with the Middle East Institute in an innovative ongoing collaboration to strengthen US-UAE cultural ties. In 2022, this diverse range of activities includes an exhibition of contemporary art by leading Middle Eastern artists whose work explores the impact of climate change on their communities and natural environment, and the need for greater sustainability.
In partnership with the Embassy of Japan to the UAE, Abu Dhabi Festival will showcase 42 prints produced by 10 prominent Japanese contemporary painters, including Yayoi Kusama, Masanari Murai and Yasukazu Tabuchi, who explored a wide range of possibilities through prints and expanded the range of expression in contemporary art using the print medium in the 1970s.
In partnership with Ewa’a Shelter for Women and Children, a series of talks were hosted at the Expo 2020 Women’s Pavilion with international experts on humanitarian issues involving violence towards women. Aimed at strengthening awareness of violence and abuse, the talks explored what we can do as individuals, as a nation and as a community to make changes for a more violence-free world.
Aida is one of Teatro Real’s most monumental and emblematic productions. A restored and updated version revives the brilliant composer Giuseppe Verdi’s powerful tale of love and betrayal. Conducted by Maestro Nicola Luisotti, with stage direction and set and costume design by Hugo de Ana, the opera features star performers soprano Krassimira Stoyanova, tenor Piotr Beczała, baritone Carlos Álvarez and mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton.
Exploring the majesty, might, and mystery of nature through both arresting and evocative music and theatrical effects, accomplished mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato takes audiences on an emotional journey, performed by the unique historically informed instrumentation of orchestra il Pomo d’Oro with French stage director Marie Lambert-Le Bihan.
Gifted Emirati composer Ihab Darwish’s new work, in collaboration with Emmy-winning composer John Debney and Academy Award-winning composer David Shire, celebrates the historic opening of the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi. Bringing together top international composers, musicians and vocal ensembles from Christian, Jewish and Muslim backgrounds, the symphony celebrates unity and peace amongst different faiths.
Sheikh Mahmoud Al Tohamy, the great Egyptian Sufi chanter, will present a performance by his former students at the School of Religious Hymns. Now well-known spiritual musicians in their own rite, these award-winning performers have built their own followings through regular appearances at festivals and on television.
Vanguard flamenco dancer and choreographer María Pagés premieres her feminine vision of Carmen. Hailed all over the world as one of the finest contemporary flamenco shows, it is a new take on the gypsy cigarette girl from Mérimée’s novella who was made famous by Bizet and the storyteller of the Arabian Nights.
Acclaimed Algerian filmmaker Salem Brahimi documents the inspiring story of Algerian Olympic champion Hassiba Boulmerka’s rise in the 1990s as a symbol of courage and resistance against death threats from religious extremists and oppression. Echoing the struggle of young Muslim women in some places to be allowed to jog and engage in sports, the film ultimately raises questions about the place of women in our societies.
The first album by these young performers from Europe and the Middle East is born out of the need to bridge the distance between the shores and sonic world’s of a rapidly changing region. Musicians from Egypt, Turkey, Portugal and Italy met in Cairo to build a new collective musical identity, blending timbres and backgrounds in a unique artistic collaboration with Festival Aix-en-Provence, supported by Abu Dhabi Festival.