The Cairo Opera
House announced the opening of Mohamed Abdel Wahhab Museum and Musical
Instruments Museum at the Arab Music Institute for free for the public for a
week, starting from Sunday 12 to Thursday 16 March, daily from 10 am to 3 pm in
celebration of the birthday of the Abdel Wahab, known as the Musician of Generations.
This is an annual opera tradition aimed
at introducing new generations to the symbols of Arab art.
The museum narrates the features of the
career of Mohamed Abdel Wahhab through several halls, one of which bears the
name “Hall of Memories” and is divided into two wings.
The second includes a number of private
furniture of his house, such as his bedroom, his private office, a set of his
favorite pieces of furniture and some of his personal belongings, in addition
to a cinema hall that includes all the films that he acted in and are shown to
visitors on special screens.
Another hall includes a complete
library for Abdel Wahab’s works of music, songs, albums, and his private photos
with public figures and artists, which the visitor can browse on touch screens.
As for the Museum of Musical
Instruments, it contains a group of old instruments that were found during the
restoration of the building of the Institute of Arab Music.
The instruments were carefully
renovated and displayed according to its nature varying between strings, wind
instruments, percussion, etc.
A board next to each instrument
explaining its nature: a device that produces the sound of each instrument,
including rare instruments, such as the three quarter tone piano dedicated to
oriental instrumentals, the Japanese koto instrument, the Indian sitar
instrument, the santoor instrument, and the metal mandolin instrument. This was used by Abdel Wahab in the
melody of his song “Ashek El Roh” in the “Ghazal Al Banat” movie in 1949.
Several musical events were held at the
Arab Music Institute theater by various Arab music troupes in celebration of
Abdel Wahab’s birthday.
Source: Egypt
Independent