Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Meet 150th Anniversary Opera Honorees


Sun 17 Nov 2019 | 11:54 PM
Nour El-Hoda Fouad

During the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Egyptian "Khepe" opera, Minister of Culture Enas Abdel Dayem honored 12 Egyptian symbols, who have devoted their lives to art, music, and ballet.

Among the artists is Egyptian leading soprano Nabila Erian, who is known for being the first Egyptian soprano to perform a translated international opera. In 1964, she played the role of Violetta where she sang Verdi's La Traviata in Arabic on the stage of the Khepial Opera House. She was also the Director of the Cairo Opera Company and the Associate Dean of the Cairo Conservatoire.

Aleya Abdel Razek, the first ballerina of the Cairo Opera Ballet for 18 years. She was among the first teaching staff at the Egyptian Institute of Ballet in 1966 and was awarded the Order of Merit by the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the same year.

Marcelle Matta

Mother Pianist Marcelle Matta for her lifetime devotion to Music and teaching. Matta is the first Egyptian professor assigned in the Cairo Conservatory, the first Egyptian pianist to perform in the Old Cairo Opera House, a professor, and mentor of many Egyptian talented and well-known pianists making careers in Egypt as well as international careers abroad.

Maya Selim, the first dancer of the Cairo Ballet in 1966, who obtained several PhDs from the Sorbonne and the Bolshoi School in Moscow. She worked as a lecturer at the Higher Institute of Ballet since 1972 and in 2002, became a full-time professor.

Baritone Gaber El-Beltagy, a Professor of operatic singing at the Academy of Arts. He served as the executive director of the Cairo Opera and Inspector General of Theaters. El-Beltagy received his Ph.D. in the relation of opera singing with the call to prayer. He was awarded the Medal of Joseph Verdi, the Canadian Merit Medal of 1982, the Medal of the Bolshoi Theater and was honored by the former Minister of Culture Tharwat Okasha as well as the Order of the Knight by former Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

Esmat Yahia, the first dancer of the Cairo Ballet in 1966 and the instructor of the first ballet in 1969. Yahia received several doctorates from the Soviet Union, served as dean of the Higher Institute of Ballet in 1999 and president of the Academy of Arts in 2006. He also received the shield of the Academy of Arts in 2015 and medals of honor from the Russian Federation. He also founded 3 ensembles at the Ballet Institute. Yahia worked as president and member of the permanent scientific committees to examine and evaluate the work of the applicant professors at the art institutes since 1996.

Afaf Radi

Afaf Radi, one of the stars in the 70s. She studied music at the Conservatoire when she was 10. Radi studied piano and finished both her master’s and bachelor’s degree in Arts at the age of 18. She worked in many plays later on and did only one movie "Mawlid Ya Donia" with stars Mahmoud Yassin and Abdel Moneim Madbouli. The singer has a number of distinctive albums and worked with top composers such as Baligh Hamdi.

Sonia Sarkis, who made a number of performances on the old opera Khepe theater, including The Nutcracker and Don Quixote, where she joined the Ballet Institute in 1963 and worked as the first ballerina Egypt in 1977. She represented Egypt with many international performances and competitions in Japan, France, and the US.

Wadoud Faidi, the founder of the first ballet troupe in Alexandria. She studied at the Balshawi School and received the Order of Merit from the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Faidi supervises educational thesis up to date.

Sherif Bahadr has worked as a composer of the Cairo Ballet since 1974. He participated in the "Nutcracker" at the Khepe opera before being burned down in 1968. Bahadr obtained a doctorate from the Russian Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1992 and was appointed dean of the Higher Institute of Ballet in 2010. He is currently a professor at the Academy of Arts. He designed and assisted in directing several huge shows including Opera Aida in Luxor and the Millennium Concert at the pyramids plateau.

Contributed by: Taarek Refaat