Skyscraper-filled Dubai burnishes arts scene with new opera

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Already filled with towering skyscrapers, Dubai will soon offer soaring arias inside a new opera house.

The city-state is opening the Dubai Opera on Wednesday night, in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.

The Dubai Opera resembles one of the many traditional wooden dhow shipping boats still plying the Dubai Creek. Its glass bow rises up to a point looking out at the Dubai Fountain. A giant glass chandelier in the lobby resembles a fishing net.

This isn’t the first opera house built on the Arabian Peninsula, as Oman opened the Royal Opera House Muscat in 2011.

But the arrival of the performance centre comes as part of a greater push by the United Arab Emirates into the world of fine arts.

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