Opera in Arabic? This is What New Lebanese Academy Seeks to do

Opera Lebanon has joined forces with international non-profit Opera for Peace to create their new MENA academy, which seeks to support the evolving genre of Arabic-language opera.

The new academy will train young talents in the region, encourage cultural exchange and offer an educational platform exploring Arabic opera technique.

“Opera for Peace is a collaborative and forward-thinking organization and just working in Europe or America, places where opera is traditionally presented, doesn’t really interest us,” Opera for Peace founder Julia Lagahuzère told The Daily Star. “We’re interested in working in emerging countries and regions, to really bring out their voices and ways of collaborating and thinking differently. This will help us move forward, because we see there is a demand for opera in these regions.”

Opera for Peace acts as an umbrella organization, partnering with the region’s artists and cultural and educational institutions. With international professionals, organizations in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and the UAE will take part in developing original Arabic opera technique and strengthening the form’s MENA presence.

Coronavirus willing, 2021 will see online conferences, educational videos and some live events staged. In February, artists from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Jordan will travel to Russia’s Sochi Winter Arts International Festival to work with coaches and perform from the Arabic repertoire.

In March, Lebanon’s Al-Bustan International Music Festival hopes to host some of the program’s artist ambassadors, alongside Lebanese opera students. Amman Opera Festival, in April, is also on the docket. Further plans have yet to be announced due to the pandemic, but it’s hoped master classes and conferences will be held throughout 2021.

“For now, a lot will happen online but hopefully the events will be live. We’ve been forced to do a lot online this past year until the health crisis eases,” Lagahuzère said. “The Lebanese National Higher Conservatory has a very good reputation for teaching in the region and ... has worked on a method of how to sing opera in Arabic.”

Opera Lebanon has spent the past five years experimenting with and producing original Arabic operas. The Lebanese National Higher Conservatory allows students to specialize in Arabic opera, yet had little for them to sing.

“Many have tried to make [Arabic-language operas] over the years but for many reasons it didn’t work, especially the composers in Egypt, who really experimented with western operas, trying to do them in Arabic,” Opera Lebanon artistic director and LNHC conductor Maroun Rahi told The Daily Star. “We spent a lot of time looking at ways to adapt opera to the Arabic language and created some that have toured all over the opera houses of the region.

“Music gathers all people and opera is not only something of the west anymore. Just like how China now has an active opera scene, with a Chinese twist, Arabic opera can do the same,” he added. “Lebanon has experience in this field. We have 10 original Arabic operas and have the knowledge to create the music, the staging etc. and have a team of 200 – from singers, to musicians and [production designers].”

Opera Lebanon’s productions include the tale of “Antar w Abla,” which spins the story of the sixth-century warrior and poet Antar Ibn Shaddad, who wrote romantic poetry about his forbidden love Abla.

Others include “Queen Balkis,” a historical opera set in the first Arabic kingdom of Shiba, “Zarka’a Al Yamama,” based on a pre-Islamic tale of a blue-eyed woman with exceptional intuition and ability to predict events, and “The Palace of Howdah,” based poems by the 20th-century Indonesian-born Yemeni poet Ali Ahmad Bakathir.

Most attempts to translate western operas into Arabic were made in '50s Cairo, which Rahi describes as a “fiasco.” The composers focused on translating the lyrics, which sounded wonderful in Italian but sounded harsh in Arabic. Scores written to accompany Italian lyrics, clashed with literal Arabic translations.

“We’ll be teaching our methods to some of the other artist ambassadors and institutions, so they can give workshops, lectures and pass it on to other artists around the world,” Rahi said. “The singing method is the most important part. The reason most previous attempts failed was that singers would go learn the Italian method of singing opera then come back and try to sing in Arabic and it would sound broken, like a foreigner speaking Arabic.

“Our method uses the Arabic that is spoken every day, with the same accents and intonations, and the language choice also must be something people understand and can relate to,” he added. “The maqamat of our music is the second part of this. You can’t have western scales with Arabic singing. Arabic music is necessary and the type of orchestra we use must be an oriental formation too. Operas are a national art, so must reflect the nation they’re created for and in.”

The initiative will soon launch an online platform with coached classes and 15 instructional videos showing Rahi’s techniques. There are plans to open new music academies elsewhere in the region – six in Saudi Arabia and one in Syria.

Opera for Peace intends to facilitate constant artistic exchange among countries in the MENA region and internationally.

“We want to consolidate ideas and creations and support artists in the Middle East, but our main goal is to promote and develop this wonderful art form and language in the rest of the world. This is where Opera for Peace comes in,” Lagahuzère said. “We have over 120 partners worldwide from festivals to international institutions, so we have the reach to promote and develop what we’re doing in the region, to the rest of the word.”

This article has been adapted from its original source.     

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