Spanish focus
With several excerpts from Carmen by Georges Bizet, a few Zarzuela songs, the famous "siete canciones" by Manuel De Falla and the symphonic poem España by Emmanuel Chabrier, the programme had a Spanish focus.
They began with the dazzling overture Ruslan and Lyudmila by Glinka. What an orchestra! What coordination in the strings, what a homogeneous sound from the winds!
Fatma Said is a thirty-five-year-old Egyptian soprano who is building an international career. In her ice-blue sparkling gown she begins subtly with Mozart's "Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio". But she knows exactly what she is doing, we hear in her voice. This is followed by the glorious Ave Maria by Pietro Mascagni from Cavalleria Rusticana. The orchestra then takes over again with two movements from the Carmen orchestral suite. Vienna is also on the programme, an aria by Robert Stolz and a Csárdás by Johann Strauss.
Said has a somewhat hollow voice; there is not much flesh and sinew around the vocal cords. This is no reproach, the same could be said of Maria Callas.
In "Marinela" by José Serrano she briefly strays from the pitch. Slightly too low, but even a star soprano can be a moment less secure in intonation.
Fittingly, given this Egyptian soprano, the "Adieux de l'hôtesse arabe" by Georges Bizet is also on the programme. In this aria a long Arabic flute, the so-called Ney, played by Pelin Başar, is also heard.
Arabic
What is special about Fatma Said is the Arabic music in her repertoire. There are not many Arabic-speaking voices among the top singers. As a native speaker she can therefore deliver Arabic songs in a musically convincing way. Arabic, by the way, has a very different rhythm and vocal production in the mouth than Italian, Spanish, German or French, languages she also masters excellently in singing.
As her final number she therefore sings a song from her homeland, which she proudly announces. A work by Najib Hankash from 1964. It is striking that this remarkable singer performs an Arabic song in this city of Antwerp, a city with a large Arabic-speaking population.
Egypt
The programme also included the well-known Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns. That is in turn based on the Book of Judges from the Torah, the Jewish Bible. Fittingly, in these days when the large Orthodox community in Antwerp is celebrating the Sukkot festival. The Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorates the forty years in the desert. The flight from Egypt, the land of Fatma Said.
During the interval you also heard a lot of Arabic amid the murmur of the crowd. The Egyptian ambassador and his entourage were also present. Even Prime Minister Bart De Wever came to follow the second part of the gala evening, despite his busy schedule. In the orchestral work España by Emmanuel Chabrier the timpanist really went to town. But then, Antwerp is also a bit of the city of Boem Paukeslag!