The 3rd Amman Opera Festival (AOF) Programme Announced

Under the patronage of HRH Princess Muna Al Hussien, the Amman Opera Festival (AOF), first opera festival in the Arab world, has achieved a milestone for its 3rd edition, which will feature the Opera Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini, a coproduction with The Bologna Opera House.

Taking place within the same period as the internationally celebrated Italian Language Week "Italiano sulla Scena”, Barber of Seville will be showcased on October 17th and 19th 2019. It will be held at The Cultural Palace in Amman, where "A bit of Italy” opens its doors at 5:30 PM for Opera goers to enjoy a snack before the show begins. Gates open at 7:00 PM and the show begins at 7:30 PM. A Costumes exhibition by The Bologna Opera House will be featured in the Foyer of the theatre by well renowned Italian fashion designers. Part of the proceeds will go to a scholarship fund and the benefit of underprivileged children.

Jordanian soprano Zeina Barhoum will be playing Rosina, Opera Barber of Seville’s leading role, alongside Yuma Shimizu as Figaro, Fabrizio Daluiso as Il Conte and the full opera cast from The Opera House of Bologna. They will be accompanied by the Bologna Opera House Orchestra featuring musicians from the National Music Conservatory Orchestra from Jordan and the Rimini Opera House Choir led by conductor Massimo Taddia. The Opera will be directed by Fabio Buonocore.

AOF 2019 is supported by Arab Bank, IGI, The Italian Embassy in Jordan, Tech Works - An Initiative by The Crown Prince Foundation, Jordan Tourism Board, The Greater Amman Municipality, The Chinese Embassy, The Fairmont Amman, Zain, CCI uniforms, Alitalia, Avis, Coca Cola, Cozmo, Barhoum Designs, Zahi Darwazeh & Co, Frank Provost, and The Meat Master.

For more information, please visit: http://www.ammanoperafestival.com/

The 3rd AOF will also feature a costumes workshop through its educational program "An Eye on Music in Education”, in support of promising talent through SOS Children. The official launch of this programme in 2018 and the activities carried out have facilitated a recent cultural exchange in Genoa in collaboration with Genoa International Music Youth Festival. "An Eye on Music in Education’s” long term goal is to introduce a concrete music appreciation and cultural literacy curriculum at private and public schools.

In coordination with UNHCR, two Syrian refugee tailors will be working with the Italian Costume Designer for the Opera. Some 750,000 refugees from 57 different nationalities currently live in Jordan, making the Kingdom the second highest host country of refugees per capita in the world.

Zeina Barhoum Founded and Launched The First Opera Festival in the Arab World, Amman Opera Festival in Jordan Under the Patronage of HRH Princess Muna Al Hussein, featuring "La Traviata” in July 2017. September 2017, she was accompanied in Sichuan China by the Sichuan Philharmonic in a concert featuring music from her Album Alcantara II. In 2018, the second edition "La Boheme” was held at the Roman Amphitheater in Amman, Jordan.

Barhoum’s motivation behind this initiative is to plant the seedstowards growing the opera culture in Jordan and the Arab world, and perhaps inspire the building of a purpose-built Opera House in Jordan’s Capital, Amman, joining the company of other Arab states such as Oman and the UAE.