Arab Music Ensemble of Cairo Opera to perform first time in Saudi Arabia

CAIRO – 23 April 2018: The National Arab Music Ensemble (AME) of Cairo Opera House will perform two concerts in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on April 25 and 26.

In a press statement, Egyptian Culture Minister Ines Abdel Dayem described the cultural interconnection between Egypt and Saudi Arabia as a "safety valve for Arab identity," pointing to the ability of soft power in combating obscurantism, which leads to intellectual security in both countries.

Egypt’s participation in the cultural openness project of Bin Salman

Famous Egyptian actor Ashraf Abdel Baky has established his new artistic project entitled “Saudi Arabia Theater” in Jeddah with the support of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority. Abdel Baky presented his first play in the kingdom on Thursday, April 5, which witnessed the attendance of large number of male and female Saudis.

Famous Egyptian singer Tamer Hosny performed for the first time a concert in Jeddah on Friday, March 30. The concert witnessed the attendance of thousands of Saudis, about 90 percent of which were women.

The concert was organized under the auspices of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, which stated that Hosny was chosen to perform such a huge concert because of his popularity among all Saudis. This concert comes as part of the cultural openness project adopted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman.

Bin Salman has taken plenty of steps to transfer the kingdom, which was famous for its ultra-conservative culture, to a new culturally and socially open country. He has already eased the rules pertaining to the segregation of the sexes.

The Saudi Kingdom gave women the right to start their own businesses without the approval of a male relative. Rules have also been relaxed about women walking in public without a male guardian. At the beginning of February, the Shura Council, the advisory body to the monarchy, demanded the country’s sports authority to establish a Saudi agency for women’s sports.

Saudi Minister for Culture and Information Awwad bin Saleh Al Awwad previously announced that he expected the theaters to be opened very soon. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia started the screening of international children movies on Jan. 17 in Jeddah.

Last December, the Saudi government started to issue licenses for the establishment of cinema halls for the first time in three decades; despite this, lifting the ban has been opposed by powerful religious officials, who say that films can be immoral or “open doors to evil” as per their description. This decision strongly reflects Saudi Arabia’s desire to kick off its cinematic activities.

Saudi Arabia launched its first commercial cinema hall on Wednesday, April 18 ending a nearly 40-year ban on cinemas. Saudi Arabia hosted its first public film screening in over 35 years on Friday, April 20 US movie giant AMC said.

Saudi media previously announced that “The Emoji” and “Captain Underpants” were the first two movies selected for screening. Riyadh also hosted the screening of three other movies: “The Son of Bigfoot”, “Smurfs” and “Paddington 2”.

“The establishment of Saudi cinemas is the first step toward a strong Saudi cinema industry in the coming years,” renowned Saudi actor Mohamed Bakhsh previously said about the decision in an interview with Okaz newspaper.

Bakhsh stressed that Saudi film production needs a lot of funding and support to compete with the international cinema industry and to support emerging Saudi talents. Bakhsh linked the promotion of a real cinema industry with the establishment of a cinema base that exists in all the countries around the world.

“We must have a strong cinema base through the establishment of cinema institutes to enhance Saudi artists’ talents, especially since the decision of opening cinema halls needs cinema production, because most of the countries around the world consider cinema as an independent and important industry,” he added.

Bakhsh previously demanded the establishment of a Saudi media city as the base of a strong Saudi cinema industry. U.S. media has paid great attention to the social and cultural change initiated by Saudi Arabia in recent months.

The Washington Post previously said that the kingdom's conservative government has become an art sponsor, funding concerts for western celebrities such as Yanni, and promoting comic festivals and book fairs.

Bin Salman’s previous decisions were mainly dedicated to ease restrictions on women. Of his most prominent reforms is the lifting of the driving ban on women. Uber in Saudi Arabia is now looking to recruit female drivers. Bin Salman also gave Saudi women the permission to attend the country’s National Day last September in Riyadh. Additionally, women in Saudi Arabia were allowed to attend a professional football match for the first time in the country’s history on Jan. 1.

Saudi General Entertainment Authority Chairman Ahmed Al-Khatib previously announced the establishment of Saudi Arabia’s first ever opera house.

“The Saudi cultural openness era has started and we will continue until we reach the highest standards in the world,” Khatib previously declared. Khatib did not state if women will be allowed to attend the new opera shows or not. He added that the band Maroon 5 and the acrobatics show Cirque du Soleil are some of the 5,000 acts planned for 2018 alone.

Khatib declared this decision while revealing the authority’s entertainment calendar in Riyadh. He recounted that Saudi Arabia allocated $64 billion to be fully dedicated to the entrainment sector for the next 10 years. This decision means that “The Marriage of Figaro” or the “Barber of Seville” could soon be soaring through the rafters of the new Riyadh opera house.