As many as 300 people divided into 8 transfer groups are travelling from Warsaw to the United Arab Emirates this September to make the Polish National Opera's and the Polish National Ballet's peformances in Dubai happen. The first to leave was the stagehand team responsible for setting up the sets for Aida (13, 14, and 15 September). The Dubai Opera stage is smaller than the one in Warsaw, which meant that changes had to be made to the scenery in our workshops. Alternations were also made to some costumes to allow for the different cultural context: the outfits of female temple dancers were fitted with extra material to cover their arms and midriff.
The sets and costumes were shipped to the United Arab Emirates in huge, 12-meter-long containers capable of carrying up to 20 tonnes of cargo. Nine of the ten containers were take up by the scenery for Aida and only one for Giselle. Their trip to Dubai lasted 2 months.
Two casts have been engaged to perform the leading, and the most demnding, parts in Aida (Aida, Amneris, Radames, Ramfis, Amonasro), while the main roles in Giselle (18, 19, 20, and 21[x2] September) will be danced by three casts of the Polish National Ballet artists. In total, the company is sending around 70 dancers to Dubai.
They will be joined by the 90 orchestra members and 70 chorus members led by Patrick Fournillier. On 22 September the orchestra and the Dubai Festival Choir will perform Beethoven's iconic Ninth Symphony to mark the piece's bicentenary.
This is not the Polish National Opera's first invitation to Dubai. In 2018 we travelled to the United Arab Emirates with our productions of Tchaikovsky's Onegin and Aida. Opened in 2016, the spectacular buidling of the Dubai Opera was designed by Denmark's Janus Rostock to look like a dhow, the traditional sailing boat used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, and has a capacity of 2.000 seats. The opera house is the leading cultural hub in the Middle East, hosting individual artists and ensembles from across the world who treat its audience to theatre plays, operas, ballets, musicals, classical music concerts, art exhibitions, fashion shows, conferences, and other events.
