Royal Opera House Muscat

Royal Opera House Muscat. Main entrance. Night view

The Royal Opera House Muscat ( Arabic دار الأوبرا السلطانية مسقط, DMG Dar Al-Ūbirā as-Sultaniya Masqaţ ) is an opera house in the district Shati al-Qurm in Muscat , Oman . It is currently - besides the Bahrain National Theater in Manama , ( Bahrain ) and the Qatar Opera House in Doha , ( Qatar ), where only concerts are given - the only opera house in the Gulf States . In 2016, the Dubai Opera in Dubai ( United Arab Emirates ) and the Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Cultural Center in Kuwait City ( Kuwait ) , which will also have an opera house, opened.

history

The construction was decided in 2001 by Sultan Qaboos by royal decree. After a limited architectural competition in 2003, the architectural firm Wimberly Allison Tong and Goo (WATG) emerged as the winner and was commissioned with the overall planning. The architectural style is based on the modern Omani architectural style of public buildings, which combines elements of different building traditions. Construction began in April 2007. Originally the music theater was to be called the House of Musical Arts , but during the construction phase it was decided to open it as the Royal Opera House Muscat (ROHM) (based on the London Royal Opera House in Covent Garden).

The opera house opened in early September 2011 as part of a gala evening with a small group of guests of honor with the opera Rigoletto by Verdi . The first theater season began on October 14, 2011 with the opera Turandot by Puccini , conducted by Plácido Domingo , and lasted until the New Year's gala at the end of 2011. A report was published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from November 2014 on the performances of a Puccini opera November 29, 2014.

description

Exterior

The building complex stands on 80 hectares of land, half of which is built over and surrounded by a spacious landscaped garden. The facade is clad in pink limestone from the Oman desert. In addition to the opera house, an Opera Galleria with a museum shop, various upscale restaurants and a number of luxury shops was also built there. The facility also includes a cultural center with a cabaret stage .

interior

Royal Opera House Muscat. The organ.

Overall, the rooms are lavishly furnished with precious marble floors and valuable paneling. The theater room itself is held in dignified red and gold. The room can be used as a modular proscenium theater with a total of 1,100 seats.

A large number of the seats are equipped with a monitor built into the back, on which subtitles in Arabic and English can be played. The upper stage is a total of 32 m high. The royal box is opposite the stage.

organ

There is a large concert organ on the stage, which was built by the organ building company Klais (Bonn). The instrument is in a richly decorated wooden case, the prospectus of which is divided into three pipe fields. The organ's prospect pipes are also richly decorated. The play area is located below the middle pipe field. The slider chest instrument has 70 stops on four manuals and pedal. The playing and stop actions are electric. The instrument is equipped with two swellable mechanisms (Schwellwerk, Echowerk). A special feature of the organ is another solo work (Solo Royal), which can be freely coupled to any manual work and the pedal.

I choral work C – c 4 Cantabile Diapason 8th' Stopped diapason 8th' Octave 4 ′ Chimney Flute 4 ′ Sesquialtera II 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ recorder 2 ′ Larigot 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ Sharp Mixture III 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ Trumpet 8th' Cremona 8th' Tremulant

II main work C – c 4 Double Open Diapason 16 ′ Open Diapason No. 1 8th' Open Diapason No. 2 8th' Open Diapason No. 3 8th' Hollow flute 8th' Stopped diapason 8th' Octave 4 ′ Harmonic flute 4 ′ Twelfth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Fifteenth 2 ′ Cornet III 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Full Mixture V 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ Trombones 16 ′ Tromba 8th' Clarion 4 ′

III Swell C – c 4 Bourdon 16 ′ Violin Diapason 8th' Pipe flute 8th' Salicional 8th' Voix celeste 8th' Principal 4 ′ Lovely tide 4 ′ Fifteenth 2 ′ Mixture IV 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Contra trumpet 16 horn 8th' oboe 8th' Vox humana 8th' Harmonic trombone 4 ′ Tremulant

IV Echowerk C – c 4 violoncello 8th' Echo Gedackt 8th' Echo Dulciana 8th' Viol d'orchestre 8th' Unda maris 8th' Flauto Traverso 4 ′ Magic Flute 4 ′ Echo Twelfth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Echo Piccolo 2 ′ Echo Seventeenth 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′ Echo Piccolino 1' Orchestral Clarinet 8th' Orchestral oboe 8th' Tremulant Solo Royal C – c 4 Royal Chimes Royal Trumpet 8th' Flûte Qaboos 8th'

Pedal C – g 1 Double Open Wood 32 ′ Open Diapason Metal 16 ′ Open Diapason Wood 16 ′ Violone 16 ′ Bourdon 16 ′ Echo Bourdon 16 ′ Principal 8th' Bass flute 8th' Octave 4 ′ Flood 4 ′ Jubilee Flute 2 ′ Mixture IV 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Contra trumpet 32 ′ Ophicleide 16 ′ Trumpet 8th'

literature

• Mohammad Al Zubair, The Royal Opera House Muscat , Hildesheim: Olms 2015, ISBN 978-3-487-08561-6 (in English)

Web links

• Official homepage of the Royal Opera House Muscat
• Trailer for the opening opera Turandot by Puccini ( YouTube video)
• Promotion film for the Royal Opera House Muscat (Swan Lake) (YouTube video)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information on other opera houses in the Arab world and Iran : In the Maghreb , operas are performed in the Théâtre Royal de Marrakesh in Marrakech ( Morocco ), in the Théâtre national algérien in Algiers ( Algeria ) and in the Théâtre municipal de Tunis in Tunis ( Tunisia ). In 2009 there were performances of The Barber of Seville in the Roman theater of Sabrata ( Libya ). The Cairo Opera House and the Damascus Opera House in Damascus , Syria, exist in the Arab Mashrek (excluding Israel , which has the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv ) . The Baghdad Opera House and Cultural Complex is currently being built in Baghdad ( Iraq ) (the foundation stone was laid on May 4, 2012). The former opera house in Beirut , Lebanon has been converted into a cinema called “Opera” and has since been closed. It has served as a Virgin Megastore since 2001 . The Lebanon Opera House is not, as the name suggests, in Lebanon , but in Lebanon (New Hampshire) in the US state of New Hampshire . In non-Arab Iran , Tehran has the Talar-e Rudaki , in which opera performances took place before the Islamic Revolution .
2. ↑ Press release from the architectural office WATG.
3. ↑ Press release of the German-Arab Society.
4. ↑ Do you love Puccini? , in: FAZ , November 29, 2014, p. 13
5. ^ Royal Opera House Muscat Puts Oman on the Cultural World Map . February 27, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
6. ^ Website of the Johannes Klais Orgelbau company in Bonn

Coordinates: 23 ° 36 '50.6 "  N , 58 ° 28' 7.4"  E