On Monday 29 December, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s Arts Centre closed the year with a concert that fused the Christmas mood with New Year's celebrations.
The evening included the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Chamber Orchestra and Choir conducted by Hisham Gabr and choir master Rodica Ocheseanu. The evening featured also Heaven Harp Choir from Alexandria’s St. Mary and St. John Coptic Church and Cairo’s soprano Dalia Farouk who graced the stage in a few compositions.
The concert included a number of standard compositions usually performed around Christmas time and during New Year’s celebrations. Opening with Strauss' overture from Fledermaus, followed by Hallelujah from Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s Laudate Dominum in which Farouk was warmly applauded by the audience.
The evening move to highlight several known works by Johann Strauss, walking the audience through compositions such as Tales from the Vienna Woods, Pizzicato Polka, Roses from the South, The Blue Danube intertwining them with the Christmas Medley orchestrated by Mina Nabil, Puccini's Quando m'en vo from La Boheme, Lehar's Mein Herr Marquis from Fledermaus, among other compositions.
As an encore, the orchestra played Radetzky March by Johann Strauss I, a well known composition where the conductor led the audience to clap along, followed by Josef Strauss' polka Ohne Sorgen!
Photos: Ati Metwaly