It is easily one of the classiest events in the region. The Abu Dhabi Festival, celebrating its 10th year, presents a feast of elegant artistic events, encompassing classical music, theatre, dance and art. Running from March 3 to 31, the festival will host 29 productions and 100 events across 35 venues over 28 days. Previous headliners include José Carreras, Wynton Marsalis, the London Symphony Orchestra and Anoushka Shankar, as well as stage performances of Puccini’s opera La Bohème and the ballet La Bayadère. With most major events happening within the gilded interior of Emirates Palace, you have time to get those suits and cocktail dresses ready for these forthcoming soirées.
A night at the opera
The festival’s growing pedigree has helped it attract premiere opera artists. This year the festival unleashes its biggest name yet: the legendary tenor Plácido Domingo. Performing on March 20 at the Emirates Palace Auditorium, the Spaniard is set to enrapture audiences with a selection of arias, with support provided by the Grammy Award-winning soprano Ana María Martínez and the Czech Philharmonic. The Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel will also perform at the auditorium on March 26, alongside the rising opera star Viktoria Yastrebova in an evening full of popular arias and traditional Welsh favourites.
Shakespeare in love
Globe Education – the education wing of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London – returns with a new, fast-paced production of Romeo and Juliet on March 3 and 4 at the Breakwater on the Abu Dhabi Corniche. The Globe is renowned as more than a theatre, and part of Globe Education’s manifesto is to ignite and rekindle a love of Shakespeare among young people with innovative productions staged in schools, universities and international festivals. Globe Education has already won a loyal following in the UAE for its Macbeth (2011) and March’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, both selling out.
Poet of the violin
One of the world’s most celebrated violinists will also join the festivities. Joshua Bell – and his 1713 Huberman Stradivarius – will hit the Emirates Palace Auditorium on March 22, performing pieces from a career spanning 30 years as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and conductor. He will be joined by the Czech Philharmonic. For those preferring the keyboard, the arrival of Li Yundi on March 24 for a performance at the auditorium should hit the spot. The classical pianist is set to enchant audiences with his Piano Passion: Yundi in Recital, a programme composed of romantic sonatas by Chopin and Beethoven. For something more lively, the Brazilian jazz man Gilberto Gil will perform his signature samba and bossa nova numbers at the Emirates Palace Auditorium (date to be announced).
Russian masters
Another major festival draw is the much-anticipated UAE premiere of the Mariinsky Ballet. Formed in the 1740s in St Petersburg, the ballet group is part of the backbone of Russia’s dance history. Joined by the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, the group will perform Homage to Fokine on March 14 and 15 at Emirates Palace. The programme consists of four dazzling short ballets – Chopiniana, Le Spectre de la Rose, The Dying Swan and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade – choreographed by the Russian dance legend Michel Fokine.
A world premiere
In celebration of the festival’s decade-long run, the Franco-Lebanese composer and poet Bechara El Khoury has been commissioned to compose Poème Orientale, which will make its world premiere at the festival, performed by the Czech Philharmonic on March 26 at the Auditorium. Another Abu Dhabi Festival commission is the Rahbani Legacy, a production exploring the poetry, theatre and music of the influential Lebanese composers and brothers Assi and Mansour Rahbani. The production, to be performed at the Auditorium on March 25, has been created by Mansour’s son Ghadi and Oussama Rahbani.
On the canvas
The region’s art community will be celebrated with the premiere of the 25 Years of Arab Creativity exhibition, running from March 5 to 31 (venue to be announced). With works by more than 30 artists from 13 Arab nations, including two Emirati artists, the event celebrates two anniversaries – 25 years of the Paris-based cultural organisation Institut du Monde Arab (The Arab World Institute) and 10 years of the Abu Dhabi Festival. There will also be a series of art workshops and guided tours catering to schools and universities. An arts competition will also be held, with the inaugural Christo & Jeanne-Claude Award to be given to the winning artist by Her Highness Sheikha Shamsa bint Hamdan Al Nahyan. The venue for the exhibition is yet to be announced.
Local flavour
The UAE’s rich poetry tradition will be highlighted with Bil Arabi, a production by the poet Dr Habib Gholoum Al Altar, who will recite Arabic poetry detailing the UAE’s ancestral traditions.
Details and tickets
Festival tickets go on sale today from www.timeoutickets.com/abudhabifestival. Early Bird tickets to the Emirates Palace performances, beginning from Dh263, are on sale until January 11. Normal prices range from Dh125 to Dh350. Exceptions are Plácido Domingo at the Palace: from Dh295 (Early Bird Dh222); Piano Passion: Yundi in Recital: Dh100 (Early Bird Dh75); and Romeo and Juliet: Dh50 (Early Bird Dh38). With more artists and programmes set to be announced, make sure to visit the Abu Dhabi Festival website www.abudhabifestival.ae.
sasaeed@thenational.ae
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
Company%20Profile
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Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Company%20Profile
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The%20specs
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The specs: 2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera
Price, base: Dh1.2 million
Engine: 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 725hp @ 6,500pm
Torque: 900Nm @ 1,800rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.3L / 100km (estimate)
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
Chelsea 2 Burnley 3
Chelsea Morata (69'), Luiz (88')
Burnley Vokes (24', 43'), Ward (39')
Red cards Cahill, Fabregas (Chelsea)
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
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If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Funchal via Lisbon, with a connecting flight with Air Portugal. Economy class returns cost from Dh3,845 return including taxes.
The trip
The WalkMe app can be downloaded from the usual sources. If you don’t fancy doing the trip yourself, then Explore offers an eight-day levada trails tour from Dh3,050, not including flights.
The hotel
There isn’t another hotel anywhere in Madeira that matches the history and luxury of the Belmond Reid's Palace in Funchal. Doubles from Dh1,400 per night including taxes.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
SPECS
Toyota land Cruiser 2020 5.7L VXR
Engine: 5.7-litre V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 362hp
Torque: 530Nm
Price: Dh329,000 (base model 4.0L EXR Dh215,900)
WIDE%20VIEW
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The Orwell Prize for Political Writing
Twelve books were longlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Writing. The non-fiction works cover various themes from education, gender bias, and the environment to surveillance and political power. Some of the books that made it to the non-fiction longlist include:
- Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War by Tim Bouverie
- Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy
- Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
- Follow Me, Akhi: The Online World of British Muslims by Hussein Kesvani
- Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS by Azadeh Moaveni
Company profile
Name: Tratok Portal
Founded: 2017
Based: UAE
Sector: Travel & tourism
Size: 36 employees
Funding: Privately funded