Royal Opera House Muscat
The Royal Opera House Muscat (Arabic: دار الأوبرا السلطانية مسقط, DMG Dār al - Ūbirā as- Sultaniya Masqat ) is an opera house in the Shati al - Qurm district in Muscat, Oman. It is the only opera house in the Gulf States. Otherwise, there is the Arab world so far only in Beirut and Cairo Opera House.
Architectural History
The construction was decided in 2001 by Sultan Qaboos by a royal decree. After a limited architectural competition in 2003, the architectural firm Wimberly Allison Tong and Goo ( WATG ) emerged as the winner and was entrusted with the overall planning. The architecture is based on the modern Omani architecture of public buildings, which combines elements of various architectural traditions. In April 2007, started the construction. Originally, the Music Theatre of Musical Arts House should be called, but the decision was made to as the Royal Opera House Muscat ( ROHM ) open it (according to the London Royal Opera House in Covent Garden) during the construction phase. The Opera House was opened in early September 2011 at a gala evening with a small group of guests of honor with the opera Rigoletto by Verdi. The first theater season began on October 14, 2011 with the opera Turandot by Puccini (Conductor Plácido Domingo ) and lasted until the New Year Gala in late 2011.
Description
Exterior
The building complex is located on a 80 acre site, which is built over in half and surrounded by a large landscaped garden. Next to the Opera House there was also built an Opera mall with a museum shop, various fine dining establishments as well as a number of luxury shops. The grounds also include a cultural center with a cabaret stage, soon to be opened along with the Opera Mall.
Interior
Overall, the rooms are lavishly decorated with precious marble floors and a valuable paneling. The theater space itself is decorated in a tasteful red and gold. The room can be used as a modular proscenium theater with 1,100 seats.
A large number of seats is equipped with a built-in on the rear monitor can be recorded on the subtitles in Arabic and English. The upper stage is 32 m high. The royal box is located opposite the stage.
Organ
On the stage is a large concert organ, the organ of the construction company Klais (Bonn) was built. The instrument is located in a richly decorated wooden housing, the brochure is divided into three fields pipes. The front pipes of the organ are richly decorated. Below the middle pipe box is the game system. The abrasive loading instrument has 70 stops on four manuals and pedal. The play and Registertrakturen are electric. The instrument is equipped with two swellable works ( Swell, echo chamber ). A special feature of the organ is another solo album ( solo Royal), which is free can be coupled to each manual work and the pedal.