A group of us girlies went to the ballet last night - Nutcracker Suite at the Cairo Opera House.
It was a great evening - the place was full. The foyer of the Opera House had a very wintery theme with some mannequins done up in fabulous costumes. There was a also an area set aside with some handicrafts - vey good quality - embroidered tunics, tableware, carved wooden bowls etc.
I'm not too familiar with ballet though I've seen Nutcracker on tv when I was a kid and I think I saw Swan Lake once - again when I was a kid - so this was a relatively new experience for me.
The ballet was composed by Tchaikovsky. Set in the nineteenth century. The story is basically about a Christmas party - gorgeous costumes - and a young girl's dream after the party ends when she comes back into the 'ballroom' for want of a better word, shrinks in size, the mice are now as big as her and the toys come to life. In particular, the nutcracker comes to life as a prince and whisks her of to a magical winter wonderland.
The second act has the famous dances especially the arabian dance (which was exquisite) and the russian dance (cue cute kids alert). I really liked the scenery during the second act.
The lead female soloist dancers were Russian but most of the 'corps de ballet' appeared to be Egyptian.
I would say it was a predominantly Egyptian audience last night. There appeared to be several big groups of people who had all come together. I saw quite a few guys in 'black tie' including DJ and dickie bow.
The row behind us was entirely Egyptian women so I don't know if they had come unaccompanied by men or not.
It was a lovely evening especially for this time of year.
If anyone is interested to go, I think its playing until 30th December and there are 2 matinee performances (probably more kids will be at those) on 2 of the days. Our tickets were 50LE and we were on the middle balcony. I think seats are 25 - 75LE depending where you sit.
info about the Nutcracker Ballet
Cairo Opera Ballet Company
Cairo Opera House
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