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A Sober Celebration Cairo
Opera House
12/31/2025 -
Johann Strauss Jr: Frühlingsstimmen, op.410 – Reiseabenteuer, op.227 – Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka, op.214 – Die Fledermaus: “Mein Herr Marquis” & “Spiel ich die Unschuld vom Lande” – Der Zigeunerbaron: “Entr’acte”, “Freuet euch” & “So voll Fröhlichkeit” – Aegyptischer Marsch, op.335 – Unter Donner und Blitz, op.324
Josef Strauss: Ohne Sorgen!, op.271
Franz Lehár: Gold und Silber Walzer, op.79 – Paganini: “Introduction & Solo Violin”
Franz von Suppé: Leichte Kavallerie: Overture
Jacques Offenbach: Orphée aux Enfers: Overture
Joseph Hellmesberger II: Danse diabolique
Larisa Stefan (soprano)
A Cappella Choir, Adham Ezzat (chorus master), Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Vasilis Tsiatsianis (conductor)
L. Stefan, V. Tsiatsianis (© Hassan Rifaat)
I’ll always remember the first time I attended this popular event over two decades ago. New Year’s Eve at the Cairo Opera House has long been an incontournable, a “must‑see” event on everyone’s social calendar in this bustling city of 23 million inhabitants. As is now tradition, the evening is dominated by the music of Johann Strauss, whose waltzes and polkas are synonymous with this winter evening welcoming a fresh start to the calendar.
The concert takes place in the imposing Opera House, beautifully decorated for Yuletide; one is in a festive mood even before the first chord. The Cairo Opera is in fact no longer held at the famed Khedivial Opera House, inaugurated in 1869 for the opening of the Suez Canal, but rather at a newer venue, inaugurated in 1988. The older theatre was full of history: the sets for Verdi’s Aida, the opera commissioned by the Khedive (or, “ruler”) of Egypt to open the theatre on the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, were delayed by the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. Therefore this most Egyptian of operas finally premiered in Cairo two years later. The venerable opera house, where I saw my first opera as a child, burned down in 1971, a century after its opening. Interestingly, the 1,200 seat new Cairo Opera was a gift to Egypt from the people of Japan. Unlike the Italianate Khedivial Opera House, it was built in the Islamic architectural style, evocative of A Thousand and One Nights.
As is almost always the case for this event, the music of Johann Strauss Jr. (1825‑1899) was again the focus. Almost half the programme in the present concert was by the prolific Viennese composer. The Cairo Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Greek conductor Vasilis Tsiatsianis played the familiar repertoire with brio. They were especially brilliant in two pieces in the latter part of the concert, Strauss’ Unter Donner und Blitz Polka Egyptian March, the latter being a most appropriate choice.
While it may be reassuringly familiar for some, a recurring irritant with these concerts is the unimaginative obsession to repeat the same pieces each year. Mercifully, some less frequently played pieces were featured, such as the excerpt from Lehár’s operetta Paganini and a piece by Viennese composer Joseph Hellmesberger (1885‑1907), a prolific author of twenty‑two operettas, six ballets, dance music and Lieder. His Danse diabolique is an exhilarating work that would raise the temperature of any concert hall.
Strauss Jr’s Blue Danube and Strauss Sr’s Radetzky March were the featured encores. For the latter, the public traditionally joins, clapping on the downbeat. It’s perhaps the most joyous part of the evening.
Keeping with tradition, a soprano, Romanian Larisa Stefan, was the invitee, adding vocal virtuosity to the general mirth of the evening. With only four arias and no vocal encores, this year’s program has not been as generous for voice lovers as in previous years. Moreover, the selections avoided showpieces for dazzling coloratura such as the Olympia’s aria from Les Contes d’Hoffmann and overly schmaltzy pieces such as “Viljas Lied,” from Die lustige Witwe or aria, “Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiss,” from another Lehár operetta, Giuditta, all three arias habitually given at this concert.
Of the two arias for Adele from Die Fledermaus, the Act II aria “Mein Herr Marquis” was the more enticing one, thanks to both its charm and its vocal demands on the singer. The undemanding Act III aria “Spiel ich die Unschuld vom Lande” can be charming, but in the absence of surtitles, much is lost on most in the audience. Frühlingsstimmen Waltz was the most familiar of the vocal pieces, and Stefan managed to impress with her brilliant high notes and elegance. It was also the piece that elicited the most applause. The melodious Act II aria “So voll Fröhlichkeit,” from Zigeunerbaron, was an interesting choice, and possibly Stefan’s best contribution, despite its brevity.
Unfortunately neither the soprano nor the conductor interacted much with the public, save for Tsiatsianis wishing a happy new year in Arabic at the end of the concert. Other conductors and sopranos interacted with the audience at the beginning, thus establishing a certain spirit of camaraderie and encouraging public participation. Perhaps that was the reason this year’s edition of the New Year’s Concert did not feel quite as jovial. A less felicitous explanation is that the since Covid, the war in Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza, there has not been much to rejoice about in the world. And this was three days before the Venezuelan coup!
Ossama el Naggar
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