Big role for children in Royal Opera House Muscat's first in-house production

Muscat: As part of its fifth anniversary celebrations, the Royal Opera House Muscat has announced its first ever in-house production, titled ‘Celebrating Oman: The Great Journey’.
The 90-minute show will feature 40 Omani children from the schools of Muscat, more than 30 Omani musicians and 3 desert camels from the Royal Camel Corp.
The project took one whole year to plan and execute, and seven months to produce. The show has been developed in co-operation with the Namaste group, a renowned open air show company based in Europe and Asia. The group is the brain child of renowned Italian creator, Paolo Dalla Saga.
“The first time I was here (two years ago), I had a dream in this Maidan. The challenge was ‘how to’. This kind of content (regarding Oman’s history) needs to be shared. We decided to have a lot of children because children are the future of tomorrow. We worked with public and private schools and the children were so happy. They will become actors and actresses of tomorrow’s Oman,” Sega noted.
His Highness Sayyid Kamil bin Fahad Al Said was very excited about the new production as well as the ROH’s success rate.
“The ROHM has worked hard over the last five years and the fact that we have so many sold out shows feels great. We’ve reached a benchmark. On an average, opera houses around the world have a 70 per cent sold out rate. We never saw 70 per cent as our standard and have achieved a 90 per cent sold out rate,” HH said.
His Highness also stated that the ROH’s staff comprised 73 per cent Omanis, working at various levels in the staff.
Although the production will be free, the ROH will have a ticketing system to help organise it better.
“We usually don’t like to give out free tickets because people don’t show up. I have also noticed that when the event is free, people park where ever they can. We will work on a system to organize it better, in perhaps two weeks or by end of the year,” Sayyid Kamil added.
“We experience the same issues when we sell or give away tickets. People don’t always show up. We can’t regulate companies who buy 20 tickets. We can’t call it a challenge because it’s actually good that they’re buying tickets. But recently I’ve noticed that we have less empty seats than we used to have. I’m proud to say that we are selling 90 percent of all the tickets for every show,” SayyidKamil added.
“This is the ROHs first production and will be the first such show, like no other around the world. Theatrical storytelling, the music and acrobats, it will have everything. People will sit, hear and learn about the wonderful country that Oman is,” said Umberto Fanni, the Director General.
Free tickets will be presented on ROHM’s Maidan outdoor space on the January 5-7, 2017.