Monte Carlo Circus

My first time to see a traditional circus.  The acts with just people were amazing and included rope acrobatics!

Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony by the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra at Katara

K had an extra ticket last minute to Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony!  It was a lovely performance by the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra in the Opera House at Katara.  We had box seats!

view from our box seats inside the Opera House at Katara

Cirque du Soleil Saltimbanco

Cirque du Soleil Saltimbanco came to Qatar for the weekend.  Fabulous as always.  My favorite was the Chinese poles.  It seems like they flew up them!!

It was quite packed as well!

Wizard of Oz Musical

The Doha Players put on the musical, The Wizard of Oz, at the Doha British School Theatre.

It was a great production and the talent was simply spectacular!

They used a real dog for Toto who barked at just the right moments.  Really adorable.

Puss in Boots by the Doha Players

Went to see the panto of Puss in Boots performed by the Doha Players.  It was great with many costume changes and cute jokes.

The kids loved it despite it being around 3 hours long!

Singapore: Night Safari

After dinner, we went with S to the Night Safari! This is one of Singapore's signature tourist attractions. We saw a night show, road a train around to see the nocturnal animals active at night, and also could walk around to some of the close animals. The whole place was designed like a forest and it was hard to find fences marking that the animals were caged.  It was truly amazing but hard to take photos of.

This was the Creatures of the Night Show where they had this cute little guy showing us how to recycle! Singapore is really amazing with education for the environment and really is organized with everything in general. Truly an amazing country city that is doing things right.

Unlike traditional nocturnal houses, which reverse the day-night cycle of animals so they will be active by day, the Night Safari is an entire open-air zoo set in a humid tropical forest that is only open at night. It is divided into eight geographical zones, which can be explored either on foot via three walking trails, or by tram. The animals of the Night Safari, ranging from Indian rhinoceros to tarsiers, are made visible by lighting that resembles moonlight. Although it is brighter than full moonlight by a few orders of magnitude, it is dim enough not to disturb nocturnal and crepuscular animals' behaviour. London based lighting designer Simon Corder created the lighting for Night Safari. Exhibits in the safari come from South America and other parts of Asia. The naturalistic enclosures simulate the animals' native habitat. Animals are separated from visitors with natural barriers, rather than caged, similar to the Singapore Zoo's open concept. Instead of vertical prison-like cages, cattle grids were laid all over the park to prevent hoofed animals from moving one habitat to another. These are grille-like metal sheets with gaps wide enough for animals' legs to go through. Moats were designed to look like streams and rivers to enable fishing cats and servals to be put on show in open areas, and hot wires were designed to look like twigs to keep animals away from the boundaries of their enclosures.

Deja Blues at the Jazz Club

Went to the Jazz Club at the Oryx Rotana Hotel and Deja Blues were performing.  Raelene was singing and she was amazing!

Jazz Concert in Como

At night, there was an American (?!) jazz concert happening right outside the hotel in the square.  We got some gelato and enjoyed the performance.

Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra at the Opera House

I went to see the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra again, but this time at the Opera House in Katara Cultural Village.

Opera House
“Katara” Cultural Village
7:30PM

Dvorak Eighth Symphony
Conductor
Nanse Gum
Bassam saba, ney
Program
Lee: United Friends for String Orchestra
Schnyder: Concerto for Ney and Orchestra
Dvořák: Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88

ceiling of the Opera House

The conductor, Nanse Gum, was very enthusiastic and gave us all some lessons about the music.

The performance also featured a traditional instrument, called the ney.

The ney (ناي‎) is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Middle Eastern music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. It is a very ancient instrument, with depictions of ney players appearing in wall paintings in the Egyptian pyramids and actual neys being found in the excavations at Ur. This indicates that the ney has been played continuously for 4,500–5,000 years, making it one of the oldest musical instruments still in use. It is a forerunner of the modern flute.


The ney consists of a piece of hollow cane or reed with five or six finger holes and one thumb hole. Ney is a Middle Persian word meaning reed. Modern neys may be made of metal or plastic tubing instead. The pitch of the ney varies depending on the region and the finger arrangement. A highly skilled ney player can reach more than three octaves, though it is more common to have several "helper" neys to cover different pitch ranges or to facilitate playing technical passages in other maqamat.

The Importance of Being Earnest performed by the Doha Players

The Doha Players performed Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, at the Qatar Academy Auditorium in Education City.  It was really great and so nice to see a play!

set

Many consider The Importance of Being Earnest as Wilde’s finest piece of work and Lady Bracknell (Helen Swan) as one of his most quoted characters.

In this play, which is a hilarious look at the comedy of manners and dubious ethics among the British upper crust, Jack Worthing (Joe Wall), who lives in the country, pretends to have a younger brother, ‘Ernest,’ whose escapades frequently call Jack to London.

Algernon Moncrieff (David Pearson) pretends to have an invalid friend, ‘Bunbury,’ whose attacks call Algernon into the country whenever there is a distasteful social function in prospect. This activity Algernon refers to as ‘Bunburying’

Jack has come to town to propose to Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolyn (Rowan Denny), who knows him as ‘Ernest.’ Gwendolyn accepts, confessing she has always felt that a man named ‘Ernest’ was her fate. When Gwendolyn’s mother, Lady Bracknell, learns that Jack’s identity dates from the discovery of a baby in a large black handbag in Victoria station she refuses to consent for the marriage.

Cecily Cardew (Holly Steele) is Jacks ward and she has grown infatuated by his brother, the appearance of Algernon in the guise of the much discussed “Ernest” leads to them becoming engaged as Cecily admits, the name ‘Ernest’ has always fascinated her.

Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra at Katara Cultural Village

Went to see the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra playing at Katara Cultural Village. One of the signature instruments used was the rababa.

The rababa (الربابة) is a type of string instrument so named no later than the 8th century and spread via Islamic trading routes over much of North Africa, the Middle East, parts of Europe, and the Far East. The bowed variety often has a spike at the bottom to rest on the ground, and is thus called a spike fiddle in certain areas, but there exist plucked versions like the kabuli rababa.  The rababa usually consists of a small, usually rounded body, the front of which is covered in a membrane such as parchment or sheepskin and has a long neck attached. There is a long thin neck with a pegbox at the end and there are one, two or three strings. There is no fingerboard. The instrument is held upright, either resting on the lap or on the floor. The bow is usually more curved than that of the violin.

"Arabic Riches to the World"

Concerto for Rababa and Orchestra

Marcel Khalife, composer

Nader Abbassi, conductor

Hassan Moataz El Molla, rababa

Katara Cultural Village

Drama Theatre, Building No. 16

The Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra is the flagship orchestra for the State of Qatar and a leading professional ensemble in the Middle East. The orchestra is one of the centers of the Qatar Foundation, contributing to the Foundation’s goals of education, science and research, and community development. It was founded by Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned in 2007.  The orchestra of 101 musicians was chosen from more than 3,000 applicants through auditions held in European and Arab countries. The best of them were chosen by a jury consisting of international music professionals. Selection criteria were driven by musician quality. The Philharmonic held its Inaugural Concert on October 30th, 2008, conducted by the world-renowned Maestro Lorin Maazel.

http://qatarphilharmonicorchestra.org/

The ceiling of the theater sparkled like the night sky!

「日本音楽週間２０１１（JAPAN MUSIC WEEK 2011）」

The Doha Circus was back.  I'm not really sure what this is but it was also there a year ago with people dressed as oryxs on stilts:

As part of Japan Music Week 2011, there were some performances at Souq Waqif, by a group called Za Ichitaro.

このたび、日本大使館は、２月２３日から２８日までの間、国際交流基金、カタール文化・芸術省、カタール財団及びスーク・ワーキフと共催で、「日本音楽週間２０１１（JAPAN MUSIC WEEK 2011）」を開催します。この日本音楽週間では、日本を代表するミュージシャンによる和太鼓公演とジャズ公演が次のとおり行われます。ぜひ、会場へお越し下さい。（いずれの公演も入場料は無料です。）なお、今回の公演の写真入りパンフレットについては、当館ホームページに掲載していますので、どうぞご覧下さい。

「Za ICHITARO」（壱太郎（和太鼓）、岩田卓也（尺八）、佐藤晃弘（和太鼓））

日本を代表する和太鼓演奏家・壱太郎氏と、若手ナンバーワンの実力を有する尺八演奏家・岩田卓也氏を中心にしたユニット。今回は、気鋭の和太鼓奏者佐藤晃弘氏を加えて、小編成ながら迫力のあるステージが展開されます。美しい旋律を歌う尺八と、力強い躍動感あふれる和太鼓のコラボレーションです。

Lebanese appetizers for dinner

Singers in Souq Waqif

Japanese Dance at Katara

For the occasion of the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011, the Embassy of Japan organized a Japanese dance and a drum concert for 8 January 2011 at Cultural Village at the Open-air Stage 2 (Opposite to the Amphitheatre sea side).

(1) Yosakoi dance (a Japanese folklore dance)18:00 ~ 20:00
(2) Japanese Drum concert 20:00 ~ 22:00

Jay Sean Concert

Jay Sean came to perform in Qatar for the Asian Football Games. The concert was free and really fun. For the final song, the Jerboa mascots came on the stage and were also dancing.

mascots dancing with Jay Sean

The AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011™ mascots are a family of Jerboas, a rodent found in the deserts of Qatar. The characters are named after different locations in the north, south, east and west of Qatar.

http://www.the-afc.com/en/event-information/asiancup2011-official-mascots

Aspire Tower