Organized by the Kingdom of Saudi, this is one of the most important annual cultural festivals in the Arab calendar. The festival has become a crossroads where poetry, intellect, culture, art, theatre, heritage and history meet, and is a fitting tribute to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Abdullah.
The lynchpin this year was the partnership forged by Najdat Anzour, one of the most eminent and creative producer/directors in the Middle East and Christopher George, whose contribution to British TV scenic design has constantly expanded the boundaries of expectation.
The two men first met on a production called ‘Searching for Salah-al-Deen’, a series of 30 one-hour episodes, about the reclamation of the Holy Lands from the occupied forces of the Crusaders, which blended and paralleled 12th century period scenes with the modern day conflict in the Middle East. On that occasion George helped the director by providing various Crusader props and armouries, and designing a giant catapult, which was fabricated in Syria within 10 days.
Anzour had been asked for a number of years to direct Janadriyah, and when he finally accepted, Christopher George was called in as his production designer. His Excellency Dr Dhazi al Gasaibi, the Saudi Ambassador to London, wrote the libretto whilst Mohammed Abdullah wrote the music for the specially-commissioned modern opera.
Christopher George had designed an environment for the Crown Prince around the perfect viewing position, creating different layers of perspective using Screenco LED screens. This produced a multi-layered effect with various reveals, the centrepiece of which was a huge arch, fabricated from LED screens.
"Najdat and I wanted to utilize all the different mediums and bring in live action, because opera sometimes can be quite static. So we introduced different elements such as dance, opera and combinations of video image and drama."
For instance, in one of the scenes dedicated to Saladin, there was one poignant moment when a massive image of Saladin appeared on the screens. The lights then dimmed, the dancers fled and the real-life Saladin strode commandingly through the arch and taunted the audience.
Under the direction of Najdat, the sound team of Walheed, Andy Rose and Derrick Zieba designed an imaginative and complementary soundscape with armour clashing, horses screaming, bullets whizzing everywhere, explosions from in front and from behind, whirring tanks, wailing families, all brought to life in three-dimensional surround sound by Zieba and Britannia Row Productions.
The audience was completely riveted during these powerful scenes. The violence of the current Middle Eastern conflict contrasted dramatically with sublime scenes where millions of pilgrims revolved around the sacred centre of Mecca. This was played on the huge LED screens and emphasized by the sacred dance, choreographed by Nasser Ibrahim, on the stage. The whole scene was beautifully backlit by lighting director Darryl Nood. The moods of each progressive scene were transformed using the very latest moving light technology provided by Andy Martin of AFM.
A mixture of 15mm and 25mm pixel pitch screens were arranged to form seven arches and columns that were designed to enhance the perspective views, making the stage seem even deeper than it was. In all, Screenco supplied two 8 x 6 15mm screens, situated at stage left and right, two 2 x 5 25mm upstage columns, 26 modules (25mm) forming the downstage arch, and two 4 x 2 25mm screens upstage lef
