The Beginning of the ‘Spring’
Published by hasan March 3rd, 2008 in Bahrain, Spring of Culture.I just came back from the first event of the Spring of Culture here in Bahrain; the Armenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre was performing “Gayane” at the Culture Hall in Bahrain.
I actually felt different things while sitting in the Culture Hall in Manama. Exactly a year ago, the whole Majnoon Layla Controversy was ’staged’ in this place. This year’s opening act, interestingly, is also a dance based on the theme of love - which I found encouraging for those who stood on Marcel Khalife and Qassim Haddad’s message last year.
The Culture Hall, to me, is a pseudo-battlefield in which Bahrain is trying to figure out where it stands on different issues regarding its own identity. But I may be over-analyzing things.
It was nice to see “Gayane”. I actually recognized some of the music I heard. The stage was arranged beautifully. The use of lights and shadows was very pleasing. The dancing was beautiful. It was also nice to see many Eastern touches to the music and dancing. Quite a few numbers made use of drumming rhythms that are familiar all over the Middle East.
I was slightly disappointed in the fact that the music was just a playback of a recording. It would have been nice to see an entire orchestra playing the music that went along with the dancing (Marcel Khalife pulled it off last year on the same stage - albeit with a small ensemble). I was also slightly annoyed by the fact that a large number of people in the audience walked in wearing jeans, tshirts and baseball hats - which is not the typical attire one would expect the audience to wear while seeing any national opera and ballet theatre perform.
I was pleased, however, with the fact that I didn’t hear a single cellphone ring during the entire performance. I guess in that sense, people are beginning to smarten up.
We’ve still got a long way to go, though. A very long way.
5 Responses to “The Beginning of the ‘Spring’”
- 1 Pingback on Mar 4th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
- 2 Pingback on Mar 14th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Hasan, the only reason you didn’t hear any mobile phones ringing was because the security took all phones at the door!
It’s a shame that the Cultural Hall’s stage is so small, I was just hoping that the dancers didn’t crash into eachother whilst dancing!
It was a beautiful show but butt-numbingly long!
sounds wonderful, besides the little annoyances… but overall, seems great… sure we have a long way to go, but this is a good start… ill probably start covering these in the near future, too
and excellent about the cell phones not ringing. i went to a movie the other day and wow… heard more phones ringing than i hear when im at the office…
Yagoob - we were lucky for those three 15-minute breaks. Security was taking phones at the door? Now I’m wondering if I went to the same show as you did
Ammar - Yeah. For the capabilities we’ve got in our little Culture Hall, it wasn’t so bad. The audience was very polite and receptive yesterday, and we don’t have any particular elected officials wasting everyone else’s time saying that the show was ‘evil’ in today’s paper. Maybe there is hope after all.