Fatma Said Enchants Dubai Audiences at InClassica Music Festival

InClassica 2021 is the biggest and most ambitious music festival to ever take place in the Middle East, welcoming a staggering 37 world-renowned soloists, 7 celebrated orchestras and 12 leading conductors to Dubai for a 30-day celebration of sublime musicianship, world-class performance and international collaboration. InClassica is pleased to present the biggest names in classical music today, featuring performers from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas, for an unrivalled programme of phenomenal concerts taking place at the Dubai Opera and Coca-Cola Arena. The festival features a range of music from distinguished historical European composers, as well as works from the event’s Composer-in-Residence, Alexey Shor.

Last night at InClassica

The Golden Voice
Dubai Opera 

The concert opened with George Frideric Handel's majestic ‘Arrival of the Queen of Sheeba’ from the German composer's oratorio ‘Salomon’, continuing with ‘Lascia ch'io pianga’ and Mozart's concert-aria ‘Chi sà, chi sà qual sia’. The overture that Mozart composed for ‘Le nozze di Figaro’ shows his musical complexity and emotional mastery. Like ‘Le nozze di Figaro’, Gioachino Rossini's ‘Il Barbiere di Siviglia’ is based on the comedy ‘La folle journée, ou Le mariage de Figaro’ by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. The opera's overture as well as Rosina's aria ‘Una voce poco fa’ are stuffed with musical humour and esprit. With its lyrical beauty, Georges Bizet's ‘Carmen’ perfectly matched with Giacomo Puccini's ‘O mio babbino caro’ from ‘Gianni Schicchi’. Fatma Said combined this with ‘Aksamtu Bismik ya belady’ by Mohammed Abdel Wahab, the famous Egyptian singer and composer. After these vocal fireworks, the programme turned to ‘Sheherazade’ by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, popular for its use of exuberant orchestral colours and vivid melodic inventions.

Fatma Said (soprano)
 - How did you enjoy the performance?“Very very much. The music choices were wonderful and the conductor is incredibly flexible and musical so despite us not having much time for a rehearsal it went very well, we understood each other musically.”
 - How was the experience of working with the Russian National Orchestra?“It was a huge honour. I never worked with them before and I’m happy to have this chance because they have an incredible reputation.”
 - How did you rate the hall itself? “It carries very well I must say. I’m quite impressed with the acoustic. I was a bit sceptical before because generally I’m always apprehensive about a concert hall I don’t know but it really carries the voice a lot and supports the voice.” 
 - How did things go from an organisational perspective for you? “Absolutely wonderful. The organisers tried to make it as comfortable as possible, and I’m glad it worked out well because everyone was very flexible”. 

Felix Korobov
 - “I was happy to be on the same stage with Fatma Said. She has a very musical nature, and today, in addition to famous arias, she fantastically sang Arabic lyric songs. These are two love songs - one about love for a man, the other about love for the motherland. And she was very reverently able to convey these feelings.”

 - “I want to note that this is my first time performing at the Dubai Opera, and this is a wonderful hall. I have always had a dream that in the opera hall there was such a beautifully acoustically portable wooden cabinet for symphony concerts; it is here, and performing in such a hall is an incredible pleasure.”

Quotes From Those in Attendance:

“It was absolutely magical. What a divine voice, I loved every second of it” - audience member

“Very wonderful performance. The acoustics were perfect for this kind of thing, and the singer was top-notch, very very good” - audience member

“An interesting choice of repertoire. A lot of famous pieces and they pulled them off very well I thought. Big congratulations to the singer and the orchestra” - audience member

Tonight at InClassica*

Four Seasons of Manhattan
Dubai Opera 

As a violinist of vibrant energy, impeccable taste and rich sound, Sergei Dogadin is the ideal soloist for Camille Saint-Saëns's ‘Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso’, a typically French piece of music, full of sensitive elegance, the parfum of the Parisian salons and grandiose virtuosity. Dogadin also plays the solo violin in Alexey Shor's ‘Four Seasons of Manhattan’, a very personal approach to the change of seasons in the American metropolis. As the conductor of the Russian National Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev shows a distinct Russian perspective on the cycle of seasons that inspired Alexander Glasunov to write a ballet evoking a tableau painted with delicate colours and sublime orchestration.

• Sergei Dogadin
• Mikhail Pletnev
• Russian National Orchestra

*Full details (including quotes from performers and attendees) will be available tomorrow. For any enquiries regarding tonight’s performance, please contact us.

Organised by the European Foundation for Support of Culture and SAMIT Event Group, the 2021 Edition of the InClassica International Music Festival is currently underway, with daily concerts taking place until the 26th of September. For more information or to book tickets, please visit the official website at inclassica.com.