Tamerlano

The second performance of this spectacular “reimagining” of Handle’s opera by the flamboyant director and designer Stefano Poda. It blends Handel’s score with “a new musical concept” by composer Kirill Richter that weaves in traditional Uzbek instruments.  The sets feature monumental structures inspired by Timurid architecture, kinetic installations, and immersive lighting; and Poda has assembled more than 160 artists — singers, ballet dancers, the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan, the State Choir, and a number of national ensembles — to create a world of music, movement, and visual poetry. The scale, ambition and expense are all impressive; as the blurb has it, “Dubai has never witnessed an operatic production of this magnitude”.