The Royal Opera Muscat dates back to 2011. It is the first opera house on the Arabian Peninsula (the second opened in Dubai in 2016), which has become the main theatre and concert venue in Oman, and the intersection of the cultural traditions of the East and West.
Indeed, everything here is arranged royally: in a huge park, laid out on the edge of the bay, amongst greenery and flowers, a fabulously beautiful snow-white oriental palace rises. Its interiors only enhance the atmosphere of the whimsical script of an Arabian fairy tale, leading the traveller through numerous halls and foyers. However, this whole “fairy tale” is organised using the latest technology, as befits a modern cultural centre aimed at the widest segment of the public. The main hall can easily be transformed from an opera hall into a concert hall (unveiling an organ of an impressive size to the astonished gaze); information monitors are built into the backs of its seats for the convenience of listeners. In addition to performances, visitors are invited to attend the art centre, and there are restaurants and numerous boutiques in the neighbourhood.
The management of the Royal Opera attempts to gather the best artists from all over the world. Many global celebrities have performed here – Anne-Sophie Mutter, Gidon Kremer, Joshua Bell, Plácido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli, Renée Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov, Sondra Radvanovsky, Jonas Kaufmann, Juan Diego Flórez, Cristina Opolais, Roberto Alagna, Erwin Schrott, Piotr Beczała, Joyce DiDonato and others. While they invite globally known orchestras, Omanis are proud of their own Royal Symphony Orchestra, which also includes exclusively local musicians (!), as well as the Royal Brass Band.
Even though opera is the main subject of interest (an incredible number of opera companies, including the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres have toured there), a taste for ballet is also being gradually established there. The first ballet that Muscat audiences saw, literally two and a half months after the theatre opened, was Swan Lake performed by the ballet troupe of the Mariinsky Theatre. Since then, Muscat has been visited by the American Ballet Theatre/ABT, the Stuttgart Ballet, the Hamburg Ballet, the English National Ballet, the Boris Eifman Ballet Theatre, the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, and again the Mariinsky Ballet. And finally, the Bolshoi Ballet is coming there too. One of the leading ballet troupes in the world was asked to show an example of Russian classics, and the choice fell on Raymonda.
25th of January, 19:00
Raymonda — Yulia Stepanova
Jean de Brienne — Dmitry Vyskubenko
Abderakhman — Mikhail Lobukhin
26th of January, 19:00
Raymonda — Alyona Kovalyova
Jean de Brienne — Artemy Belyakov
Abderakhman — Nikita Kapustin
27th of January, 14:00
Raymonda — Ekaterina Krysanova
Jean de Brienne — Dmitry Smilevski
Abderakhman — Mikhail Lobukhin
The Bolshoi Orchestra
Conductor — Pavel Sorokin
