The Cairo Opera Ballet Company was established in 1966 and is associated with the Higher Ballet Institute at the Academy of Arts (Egypt)

Academy of Arts (Egypt)

The Academy of Arts is a large educational complex in Cairo, Egypt, established by the Ministry of Culture of the then-United Arab Republic in 1959....

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History

The company’s members were first coached by Soviet ballet experts. The first production was The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (ballet) directed by Leonid Labrovsky (former director of the Bolshoy Theatre).

The Ballet Company added other great classical ballets to its repertoire, among them Giselle

Giselle

Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...

, Nutcracker

Nutcracker

A nutcracker is a mechanical device for cracking nuts. Usually they work on the principle of moments as described in Archimedes' analysis of the lever...

, Pakhita, Swan Lake

Swan Lake

Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...

 and Don Quixote. Later, it also took up contemporary ballets created by Egyptian composers and choreographers such as Osiris featuring the legend of Isis and Osiris and El Nil ballet.

Since 1973, the company has been performing outside Egypt starting in Moscow and Leningrad, then in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Germany, France, Italy, USA, Tunisia, Korea, and China. In 1991, the Cairo Opera Ballet Company was integrated into the National Cultural Centre, directed by Dr. Abdel Moneim Kamel who added to the repertoire of the company his own version of Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

, Swan Lake

Swan Lake

Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...

, Nutcracker

Nutcracker

A nutcracker is a mechanical device for cracking nuts. Usually they work on the principle of moments as described in Archimedes' analysis of the lever...

, Cinderella

Cinderella

"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...

, Le Corsaire

Le Corsaire

Le Corsaire is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto originally created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges loosely based on the poem The Corsair by Lord Byron. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Adolphe Adam, it was first presented by the ballet of...

, Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana , Latin for "Songs from Beuern" , is the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces were written principally in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces...

, Bolero

Bolero

Bolero is a form of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish and Cuban forms which are both significant and which have separate origins.The term is also used for some art music...

, Hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

, Malgré Tout, Zorba

Zorba

Zorba may refer to:*Zorba the Greek, a 1946 novel by the Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis**Zorba the Greek , a 1964 movie based on the novel**Zorba , a musical based on the novel and film...

, Danses qu’on Croise, and The Rites of Spring

Rites of Spring

Rites of Spring was an American post-hardcore band from Washington, D.C. in the mid-1980s, known for their energetic live performances. A part of the D.C. hardcore punk scene, Rites of Spring increased the frenetic violence and visceral passion of hardcore while simultaneously experimenting with...

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In 1998-1999, the company participated in the production of Aida

Aida

Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...

 at the Egyptian pyramids

Egyptian pyramids

The Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid-shaped masonry structures located in Egypt.There are 138 pyramids discovered in Egypt as of 2008. Most were built as tombs for the country's Pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods.The earliest known Egyptian pyramids are found...

platform, directed by Dr. Abdel Moneim Kamel. In 2001, he successfully produced El-Leila El- Kebira.

21st century

Since 2004, Erminia Gambarelli Kamel has been artistic director of the Cairo Opera Ballet Company which regularly performs abroad. There have been tours to Canada, Mexico, the Czech Republic, England, Jordan, Syria, Mauritius Island, and Japan.

External links

• Cairo Opera Ballet Company website