Access all arias: Final rehearsals for artists before opening of Dubai Opera

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  Artists performing in the dress rehearsal of ‘ Barber of Seville ‘ at the Dubai Opera on Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard in Downtown Dubai in Dubai. Pawan Singh / The National

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  Although full of misfortune and high drama, Rossini’s famous comic opera The Barber of Seville ends happily in a marriage. Karim Sahib / AFP

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  The opera house’s good acoustics mean that every detail of the plot and action will be clearly heard from the seats farthest from the action on stage. Karim Sahib / AFP

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  Musicians in rehearsal for Wednesday's production of Gioacchino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville led by Placido Domingo. The plush opera house affords good views of the stage all round the theatre’s 2,000 seats, unlike many older European venues that have restricted viewing from some areas. Right, the opera house’s good acoustics mean that every detail of the plot and action will be clearly heard from the seats farthest from the action on stage. Karim Sahib / AFP

Renowned Spanish tenor Placido Domingo will open Dubai’s latest cultural attraction with a concert – the first of what promises to be a season of spectacle, romance and song.

The excitement is building as Dubai prepares to raise the curtain on its spectacular new opera house on Wednesday.

Placido Domingo, one of the Three Tenors who put opera firmly back where it belonged – with the people – while still drawing in the cognoscenti, will inaugurate the venue.

Jose Carreras, the other surviving Tenor after the death of Luciano Pavarotti in 2007, will also perform at the Dubai Opera House, in October, before he retires.

Bizet's The Pearl Fishers will be performed tomorrow and Saturday night, with Rossini's comedy The Barber of Seville on Friday and Sunday, both by Teatro Verdi Trieste.

Also on this season’s bill are the ballets Coppelia and Giselle, and an evening of highlights from the operas of Mozart.

The 2,000-seat performing arts centre, at the base of the Burj Khalifa in Downtown Dubai, has been four and a half years in the making, after plans were announced by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, in March 2012. On Wednesday, that work reaches glorious fruition.