Cities Of Salt

A co-production between The Royal Opera, Shubbak – A Window on
Contemporary Arab Culture, and the Brunel Institute for Contemporary
Middle-Eastern Music Award-winning Syrian composer Zaid Jabri presents a concert performance of four scenes from his new opera Cities of Salt, which explores the impact of the discovery of oil in the Gulf States in 1932. The Bedouin men and women of one small oasis are caught in the whirlwind of forces embodied by the oil industry and the local oligarchy; a new epoch is being born.

Writers Yvette Christiansë and Rosalind Morris provide the libretto, adapted from Peter Theroux’s translation of the seminal novel of the same title by Abdelrahman Munif.

The opera is written for full orchestra with 12 soloists and chorus; this preview will feature scenes from each of the opera’s three acts. Jabri’s music for Cities of Salt skilfully draws on Arab and European musical traditions, infusing the Western symphonic tradition with a sense of the Middle East through the use of microtones and vernacular traditions. His intelligent score brings this modern and timely tale to life in all its poignancy and violence.