Concert titled “La Estrella de Oriente” (“The Eastern Star”)
Directed by: Moustafa Helmy
Estimated concert duration: 90 minutes

Oh, Our Great Love! (Ya Hobena El Kebeir)
Lyrics: Abdel Fattah Moustafa
Music by: Reyad El Sounbaty
Vocals: Ghada Adam
Premiere: July 30, 2014

The Heart Adores (El Qaleb Yaashak)
Lyrics: Beram El Tounsy
Music by: Reyad El Sounbaty
Vocals: Rehab Metawaa
Premiere: Kasr El Nil Cinema, February 4, 1971
   
Patience Has Limits (Lel Sabr Hedoud)
Lyrics: Abdel Wahab Mohamed
Music by: Mohamed El Mogy
Vocals:  Inès Ezz El Din
Premiere: El Azbakeya Theater, January 2, 1964

I’ll Find Him Tomorrow (Hakabluo Bokra)
Instrumental
Violin: Hamada El Mogy

The Ruins (Al Atlal)
Lyrics: Ibrahim Nagui
Music by: Reyad El Sounbaty
Vocals: Eman Abdel Ghany
Premiere: El Azbakeya Theater, February 5, 1959

Umm Kulthum was born to a very humble family in a small town. Her father was the imam at the local mosque and rounded off his low wages by singing religious songs at weddings and other celebrations amongst his own neighbors and in nearby villages. At the age of five, Umm Kulthum entered the kuttab or Qur’anic school of her village, where she acquired the basic skills for reading and writing from the Qur’an. She learned to sing by listening to her father, who discovered the unusual strength of her voice and asked her to sign up for singing classes. She began to perform in her own home town along with her father and brothers. Because of her youth and exceptional voice, she quickly turned into an attraction for the public. Though her family was initially hesitant about her leaving for Cairo to study, in 1923 they finally moved to the capital, where Umm Kulthum was already in demand. During these early years, her repertoire consisted in large part of the music sung by her father in the Nile Delta, complemented by a few popular tunes she had learned.

Accompanied by prestigious musicians, her repertoire of religious songs gradually gave way to newer, more modern love songs composed especially for her. Her style increased in elegance and character, and her attitude became more and more cosmopolitan, making her one of the most important personages in the country.

In the 1920’s and 1930’s, Umm Kulthum made several commercial recordings and developed a close, prolific relationship with the media, first with radio and later with television. This would become essential to her long-standing popularity. Umm Kulthum worked extensively with texts by the romantic poet Ahmad Rami and composer Muhammad al-Qsabji, characterized by the inclusion of European instruments like the cello and double bass, and by the combination of Eastern music with harmonies from Western music.

Umm Kulthum’s “golden age”

The decades of the 1940’s and 1950’s were the singer’s golden age. During this period, her collaboration with composer Zakariya Ahmad and poet Bayram al-Tunisi was very productive. Their styles were considered typically Egyptian. In the late 1940’s, Umm Kulthum hired young composer Riyad al-Sunbati to develop a series of original qasidas by Ahmad Shawqui. These were her years of greatest splendor, with an amazing mastery of both her voice and the public image she showed in the media.

Like many of her fellow countrymen, Umm Kulthum enthusiastically welcomed the Egyptian revolution in 1952. Her ties with the former regime were not close enough to jeopardize her career after the regime change. The revolutionary government showed an interest in continuing public shows uninterruptedly, especially radio. At the same time, Umm Kulthum sought new and modern love songs from the young generation of composers, which included the famous Mohamed Abd al-Wahab. In 1964, the two of them produced one of the most popular songs in the history of Arab music: “Inta Umri.”

During the 1950’s and 1960’s, Umm Kulthum’s role in Egyptian public life grew even more intense: she became the spokesperson for various social and cultural causes and initiatives. She worked hard to achieve the government’s support for musicians. After Egypt’s defeat in the war of 1967, and as a gesture of support for the nation, she began a series of national and international concerts which acquired the status of State visits. Umm Kulthum was “the voice and face of Egypt.”

The performer had been suffering from various health problems for nearly all of her adult life, including hypersensitivity to light, which forced her to wear dark glasses for many years. Her health began to wane drastically as of 1971. She died of heart failure on February 3, 1975. Her burial became a national event, and the crowds which filled the streets of Cairo were larger than anyone had predicted.

 

Directed by: Moustafa Helmy
Female performers: Ghada Adam, Rehab Metawaa, Inès Ezz El Din and Eman Abdel Ghany
Composers: Abdel Fattah Moustafa and Reyad El Sounbaty (1965), Beram El Tounsy and Reyad El Sounbaty (1971), Abdel Wahab Mohamed and Mohamed El Mogy (1964), Ibrahim Nagui and Reyad El Sounbaty (1959).

Mustafa Helmy (orchestra director)
Helmy earned his doctorate at the Higher Institute of Arab Music with cum laude honors. He is currently a violin professor at the School of Musical Teaching. He has taken part as a performer in several concerts by the Cairo Opera on the occasion of events of a national and religious nature. Likewise, he has taken part in international festivals in various Arab and European countries along with great stars, in addition to directing orchestras which accompany numerous performers outside of Egypt. In 2013, when Dr. Inas Abdel Dayem became the Opera’s director, she was charged with creating and directing the “Eastern Star” orchestra (Kawkab el Shark). This orchestra gives a monthly concert at the Cairo Opera, as well as in Alexandria and Damanhur, where, on the day of the premiere, it was a huge success and received high acclaim from the public.

Ghada Adam (singer)
Ms. Adam was born in 1979. She earned her degree as a singer at the Higher Institute of Arab Music. She is a solo performer for the National Arab Music Orchestra, having participated in most of the concerts given at the Cairo Opera in that capacity. Ghada Adam has organized and supervised many festivals, competitions and concerts while doing her work as a music researcher for the Ministry of Culture. She has been an accredited singer on Egypt’s Radio and Television network for more than 15 years. Amongst the awards she has earned throughout her career, some of the most notable include the first place achieved at the Arab Song Festival in Morocco, the prize for best Arab singer at the Festival of the Orient in Uzbekistan, and first prize at the Festival of Culture and Art held in Shanghai. Egypt’s Federation of Radio and Television paid homage to her for her brilliant career, highlighting how her work has enriched the artistic reality of Egypt in the field of music, and more specifically in the field of singing. Many television series have a soundtrack which includes songs by Ghada Adam, who has always performed as a star in many musical productions.

Ines Izz al-Din (singer)
A solo performer at the Egyptian Opera, she participated as a member of the Arab Music Orchestra of the Tathawok Palace and later joined the Orchestra of Alexandria’s Opera of Arab Music and Song. In the year of 2014, she represented Egypt with the Cairo Opera in the United Arab Emirates. She also took part as a jury member in the program to search for new talents called “The Voice of Life” and in the Arab Music Festival of the Cairo Opera in 2013.

Iman Abdul Ghani (singer)
A solo performer in the National Arab Music Orchestra, as well as a soloist in the Umm Kulthum Band at the Art Academy, in the year 2005, she earned third place in the Arab world and first in Egypt at the Arab League Festival. She has taken part in many festivals, including the Arab Music Festival in Cairo and Alexandria, for several years in a row, as well as in the Abu Dhabi Festival and the Waznika Festival in Morocco. In 2005, she earned first place in the Festival of Carthage, in which she participated with several songs, including “Son of the Revolution,” in which she was accompanied by Khaled Selim, as well as “Al Kaaba,” which she interpreted alongside singer Tarek Fouad.

Rehab Metawee (singer)
Ms. Metawee was born in 1976. She graduated from the Institute of Arab Music and is currently preparing her Master’s thesis. In the year 2001, she joined the opera stars group and later held the position of solo artist in the orchestra of Abdel Halim Nowera. She has participated in many concerts and musical events of a national and religious nature. Similarly, she has taken part in the concerts given by Kawkab el Shark, which have been held at the Cairo Opera and theaters run by that institution. She has also collaborated, as an actress and singer, with the National Theater of Egypt, performing in the work “Embraces, The Land Speaks Arabic and The Village of Mahrous” and in the Youth Rhythms Band at the Balon Theater. At the same time, we must point out her work as a performer in several concerts held at Sakiet el Sawy, in addition to the performances held for Arab communities in the United States, France, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, as well as Arab countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. Last of all, her performances in concerts should be highlighted, with the accompaniment of the Cairo Symphonic Orchestra and the Petrlitz Orchestra of Italy. In the world of television, she has played roles in Arab series such as “Farming the World” and “Harun al-Rashid.”