Royal Opera House Muscat (ROHM) has launched its 2018-19 season, which features major names from Western classical music as well as an increased Arabic offer. Programmed on the theme ‘Around the World With ROHM’, the company will also produce its first in-house opera and give the world premiere to an Arabic ballet.
Commented artistic director Umberto Fanni: “ROHM will take you on a journey that begins in Spain and travels across the US, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia … and this is a journey that will continue in the many seasons to come at the ROHM.”
Stars include Plácido Domingo, who sings at the opening gala on 6 September and conducts Verdi’s La traviata (7, 9 and 10 February 2019) and Valery Gergiev, who leads Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra through Alexander Borodin’s opera Prince Igor (27 and 29 September, 2018).
ROHM will also produce a new adaptation of Lakmé directed by David Livermore (28-30 March 2019).
As for Arabic music, highlights are the world premiere of Al Hamama Al Mutawwaqa, an epic ballet created by Hrant Minas Keshishian (11-12 April 2019); Opera Lebanon’s Antar and Abla, which mixes together drama and dance to tell an Arabic folk tale (3-4 May 2019); and the first ever The Oman World Festival of Folk Music (14-15 March 2019).
Speaking at the season launch His Highness Sayyid Kamil Mahmood Al-Said, a member of ROHM’s board of directors, noted that the company had sold 93% of its ticket allocation in 2017-18. Further, 23% of those tickets were purchased by international visitors.
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