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The Cairo Symphony Orchestra Cairo
Cairo Opera House
12/31/2024 -
Johann Strauss Jr: Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka, op.214 – Kaiser-Walzer, op.437 – Eljen a Magyar!, op.332 – Tales from the Vienna Woods, op.325 – Auf der Jagd, op.373 – Ohne Sorgen Polka, op.271 – Wiener Blut: “Ich spür es... Das Wiener Blut” – Annen-Polka, op.117 – Die Fledermaus: “Mein Herr Marquis” – Der Zigeunerbaron: “Einzugsmarsch”, op.327
Franz Lehár: Die lustige Witwe: “Viljas Lied” – Giuditta: “Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiss”
Franz von Suppé: Leichte Kavallerie: Overture – Ein Morgen, ein Mittag und ein Abend in Wien: Overture
Jacques Offenbach: Orphée aux Enfers: Overture
Joseph Hellmesberger II: Danse diabolique
Hans Christian Lumbye: The Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop, op.14
Laura Esposito (soprano)
A Cappella Children’s Choir, Nader Nagui (chorus master), Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Juan José Navarro (conductor)
(© Ossama el Naggar)
I’ll always remember the first time I attended this popular event two decades ago. For years, New Year’s Eve at the Cairo Opera House has been an incontournable, a “must‑see” event, one that’s on everyone’s social calendar in this bustling city of 22 million inhabitants. As is now tradition, the evening is dominated by the music of Johann Strauss, whose waltzes and polkas are synonymous with this perennially celebrated winter evening.
As was the case last year, after the events in Israel and Gaza, the usually carefree atmosphere at this concert was decidedly subdued. The recent fall of Syria to Turkish-supported Islamist forces compounds the continuing horrors of 2024. As was the case last year, the musicians were no longer dressed in seasonal garb (Santa, reindeer, elves). However, the jubilant spirit of the event, albeit more somber, was palpable, with the public clearly primed for distraction.
Keeping with tradition, a soprano was the invitee, adding vocal virtuosity to the general mirth of the evening. Italy’s Laura Esposito impressed with her bright coloratura and her winning charisma. Her first aria, the schmaltzy “Viljas Lied,” from Die lustige Witwe, conveyed her considerable charm. This is no showpiece for dazzling coloratura and is not typically the opening aria in this festive event. Usually Olympia’s “doll song” from Les Contes d’Hoffmann, or perhaps the “laughing song” from Die Fledermaus have that honour, as they allow the soprano to establish her rank with dazzling coloratura. I had the impression this may have been a deliberate choice to allow Esposito to warm up, for she sounded sharp in this first technically undemanding piece.
Charm was the essence for the second aria, “Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiss,” from another Lehár operetta, Giuditta. In the second segment, Esposito sang two arias by Johann Strauss Jr., “Ich spür es... Das Wiener Blut” and “Mein Herr Marquis,” from the operettas Wiener Blut and Die Fledermaus respectively. More than in the previous arias, Esposito shone with her exuberance and ethereal timbre in the former and her masterful coloratura in the latter. Her diction was more than adequate but not first rate. Being Italian and with considerable charisma, one wished Arditi’s “Il bacio” had been on the program.
Spanish conductor Juan José Navarro obviously worked diligently to prepare the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. This was perhaps the best‑conducted New Year’s Concert I’ve ever heard with the orchestra. They played the enduring Strauss war‑horses Kaiser-Walzer and Tritsch-Tratsch Polka with brio, showing more discipline than in previous years.
Last year’s New Year’s Concert in Cairo was a near replica of previous years. But this year, Navarro chose to introduce some less familiar pieces, such as Hellmesberger’s Danse diabolique and Lumbye’s The Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop. Viennese composer Joseph Hellmesberger (1885‑1907) was a prolific composer of twenty‑two operettas, six ballets, dance music and Lieder. His Danse diabolique is an exhilarating work that would raise the temperature of any concert hall. Navarro conveyed the excitement but avoided excess in building up its dizzying finale. Known as the “Strauss of the North”, Danish composer Hans Christian Lumbye (1810‑1874) wrote many waltzes, galops, mazurkas and polkas in the style of Strauss. Until the advent of Carl Nielsen (1865‑1931), he was Denmark’s most famous composer. His Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop recreates the sound of a train grinding to a halt and leaving a station. As it was new to most of the public, it clearly amused them for its novelty.
The Cairo Opera is in fact no longer held at the famed Khedivial Opera House, inaugurated in 1869 for the opening of the Suez Canal, but rather at a newer venue inaugurated in 1988. The older theatre was full of history: the sets for Verdi’s Aida, the opera commissioned by the Khedive (or, “ruler”) of Egypt to open the theatre on the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, were delayed by the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. Therefore this most Egyptian of operas finally premiered in Cairo two years later. The venerable opera house, where I saw my first opera as a child, burned down in 1971, a century after its opening. Interestingly, the 1,200 seat new Cairo Opera was a gift to Egypt from the people of Japan. Unlike the Italianate Khedivial Opera House, it was built in the Islamic architectural style, evocative of A Thousand and One Nights.
Strauss’s Blue Danube and Radetzky March were the featured encores. In the latter piece, the public traditionally joins in by clapping on the downbeat. It’s perhaps the most joyous part of the evening.
It’s satisfying that a musical tradition has taken hold in the Egyptian capital as it has in several other cities. Most likely the annual telecast of the Wiener Philhmoniker’s New Year’s Concert is the reason. Gott sei Dank, not all changes are necessarily for the worse; this Viennese celebration gives a glimmer of hope in these bleak times.
Ossama el Naggar
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