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 Roelan en Ljoedmila 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 glittering gown she begins subtly with Mozart's "Non so piu cosa, caso faccio". But she knows exactly what she is doing, as we hear in her voice. This is followed by the glorious Ave Maria by Pietro Mascagni from Cavalleria Rusticana. Then the orchestra takes over again with two movements from the Carmen orchestral suite. Vienna is also on the programme, an aria by Robert Stolz and a Csardas by Johann Strauss.
Said has a somewhat hollow voice; there is not much flesh and sinew around the vocal cords. This is no reproach, and the same can be said of Maria Callas.
In "Marinela" by Jose Serrano she briefly strays from pitch. Slightly too low, but even a star soprano can be less than perfectly steady for a moment.
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, is played by Pelin Başar.
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 with genuine musical conviction. Arabic, moreover, has a very different rhythm and mouth-production from Italian, Spanish, German or French, languages in which she is also an excellent singer.
As her final number she 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 the 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 based on the Book of Judges from the Torah, the Jewish Bible. Fittingly, these are days in which 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 could also hear plenty of Arabic amid the chatter. The Egyptian ambassador and his entourage were present as well. Even Prime Minister Bart De Wever came to watch the second part of the gala evening, despite his busy schedule. In the orchestral work España by Emmanuel Chabrier the timpanist did go at it with great vigour. But then, Antwerp is also a little the city of Boem Paukeslag!