opera

No picture this time, you'll have to use your imagination. We decided to check out the Cairo Opera last night. They were showing Puccini's Turandot. Turandot was originally a classic Persian tale, made into an opera by Puccini in 1926. The story takes place in China, but of course the characters sing in Italian. The troupe, though, was the Chinese National Opera. So a Persian story being sung by Chinese actors playing Chinese parts in Italian in Egypt. The orchestra was mostly Chinese, but they borrowed some local Egyptian musicians, too. The handbill was in two versions: Chinese/English and Arabic/English, but the subtitles were exclusively in English.

The costumes and dance numbers were especially good, maybe because they transcend language.

The experience was wholly enjoyable. The opera house is beautiful - the whole building is white marble. There is a dress code requiring men to wear jacket and tie (and thank goodness there was also a tie lending system on premises). The tickets are very affordable, so we can gamble about how good the performance will be.