Egyptian mezzo-soprano Farrah El-Dibany is an international award-winning opera singer. The first Arab singer to join the prestigious Paris Opera Academy in 2016, she’s been dubbed the “Egyptian Carmen”. El-Dibany has won the Wagner Foundation Award, the Hassan Kamy award and the 2019 Paris Opera’s lyric award, to name just a few.
El-Dibany’s latest achievement – performing at Emmanuel Macron’s victory event in front of the Eiffel Tower. Following this, she received France’s Order of Letters, in acknowledgment of significant achievements to the field of arts.
Farrah El-Dibany joins Paris Opera Academy
El-Dibany is the first Arab singer to join the Paris Opera Academy. She has sung compositions by Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Rossini, as well as honoring Arab icons Asmahan, Dalida and Fayrouz.
In 2015, El-Dibany played the title role in Carmen at Neuköllner Oper. That same year Opernwelt magazine named her Best Young Opera Talent. She reprised the role in 2017 in Rheinsberg after winning a prize at the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg Festival. In 2018, she received the “Wagner Stiftung” prize, performing at the Komishce Oper in Berlin and the Bayreuth Festival to celebrate the occasion.
El-Dibany won the won the 2019 “Prix Lyrique de l’AROP” award for best female opera singer from the Paris Opera House. In receipt of the award, she performed an excerpt from Carmen.
Farrah El-Dibany’s musical upbringing
Born in Alexandria, Egypt, El-Dibany grew up around music. Taking piano lessons and singing in her school choir from the age of 7, her talent became clear: “My parents definitely noticed that I had a voice. They kept supporting me,” she says. Her grandfather also introduced her to some of opera’s greats: Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, Maria Callas, and Teresa Berganza.
By the age of 14, El-Dibany was receiving lessons from famous opera singer Nevin Allouba. She then joined the prestigious Arts Centre of the Library of Alexandria. In 2010, El-Dibany studied opera at the Hanns-Eisler Academy of Music. She managed to juggle this with taking a BA and then an MA in Architecture.
El-Dibany revels in the theatrical blend of acting and singing that comes with opera. “I love (inhabiting) a role. When I sing an aria, I’m in a role, in a moment,” she says. While fluent in five languages – Arabic, English, German, French and Italian – in opera, emotion transcends words: “Opera is not about understanding the text; it’s about the voice,” says El-Dibany.
Farrah El-Dibany performs for Macron
Emmanuel Macron invited El-Dibany to sing the French National Anthem “La Marseillaise” after his re-election victory speech. While millions watched, she sang in front of the Eiffel Tower to great applause. Macron kissed her hand after the performance out of respect and admiration.
The performance marked a significant moment. El-Dibany became the first foreign artist to perform the national anthem following a presidential election victory in France. This was punctuated by the defeat of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. The last time a non-French artist gave a rendition of the song was in 1989 to mark the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution – sung by American opera legend Jessy Norman.
“It is definitely the highlight of my career. It’s something unique and something that I will never forget,” El-Dibany says.
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