ABU DHABI - Abu Dhabi Classics spotlights some of the world’s greatest vocal talent in May as legendary pop-classical-jazz singer Bobby McFerrin and a quartet of great opera voices visit the Gulf concert series.
Under the patronage of Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, the stellar line-up also features one of the world’s most renowned opera orchestras – from Venice’s historic Teatro la Fenice – under rising-star conductor Juraj Valčuha.
On three evenings, Bobby McFerrin meets Al Ain and Abu Dhabi audiences.
In these concerts, ten-time Grammy winner McFerrin – one of the world's best-known vocal innovators and improvisers, world-renowned classical conductor, creator of the song “Don't Worry Be Happy” and passionate spokesman for music education – will interact with local musicians, dancers and audiences.
Bobby McFerrin’s collaborator, composer-arranger Roger Treece, has created a new choral work for the occasion.
Based on local and other Arabian melodic and rhythmic motifs, it will be sung by a choir of over 60 Abu Dhabi schoolchildren from the Raha International School and the British School, Al Khubairat.
Also to be featured at the concerts are circle songs (sung by the children's choir) to which Bobby McFerrin will likely add his unique improvisations.
Musicians from Abu Dhabi’s “House of Oud” will perform traditional music on oud, the Arab lute, and on qānūn, the Arab zither.
And a local dance group will offer such traditional numbers as the stick dance, accompanied by oud player Kamal Mussallam plus ensemble.
Those familiar with Bobby McFerrin's performances know that each one is a unique event that resonates with the unexpected.
As one of the foremost guardians of music's rich heritage, he remains at the vanguard with his natural, beautiful and timeless music that transcends all borders and embraces all cultures.
Besides Bobby McFerrin’s concerts, there will also be circle song workshops for teachers and students.
Choreographer Tandy Beale, another regular McFerrin collaborator, will also be working with local school students on the dance aspects of the performances.
On the evening of Thursday, 7 May in the Auditorium of the Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi Classics presents an “Opera Gala” featuring some of the most beautiful and best-loved moments in opera – mainly from Italy, its birthplace, but also from France, whose operatic tradition is nearly as old.
The programme will include arias and duets from Verdi’s Rigoletto, La Traviata and Don Carlo, Puccini’s La Bohème, Tosca, Gianni Schicchi and Turandot, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Bizet’s Carmen, Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah, as well as such favourites overtures as Rossini’s William Tell and Verdi’s Nabucco.
On the platform will be not only four of the world’s most beautiful voices – Albanian-born soprano Inva Mula, Russian mezzo-soprano Julia Gertseva, Argentine tenor Marcelo Álvarez and Italian baritone Franco Vassallo – but also one of the world’s most venerable opera orchestras, from one of the world’s most historic theatres.
Venice’s glorious Teatro La Fenice, whose podium has been graced by virtually every important conductor of the last century, was the site of the world premieres of such immortal works as Verdi’s Rigoletto and La Traviata. Conducting this “Opera Gala” in Abu Dhabi will be the exciting young Slovakian maestro Juraj Valčuha, who has already become a welcome guest with leading orchestras and opera houses in Europe and North America.
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