ABU DHABI // Tickets are on sale for a show billed as a musical history of the world’s oceans and performed on the waters of Abu Dhabi.
BBC Worldwide's Blue Planet in Concert is the series' first show in the Arabian Gulf and will take place on a floating stage off the Corniche.
The show will open the Volvo Ocean Race this December and features a 75-member orchestra, led by Oscar-nominated UK composer George Fenton, performing under a 10-metre-wide screen.
Mr Fenton said he had been lucky enough to conduct the concert in venues such as the Hollywood Bowl and the Sydney Opera House.
But the prospect of playing in the Gulf for the first time, with the orchestra on a floating stage and the Abu Dhabi skyline as a backdrop, “promises to be the show’s most spectacular setting yet”, he said.
Blue Planet a backdrop of footage from the BBC series, combined with original music.
The show includes a sequence on how the oceans have changed over the past 50 years because of human intervention.
The Volvo Ocean Race stopover runs until January and will take place in the VOR Destination Village, which is about the size of five football pitches and has been built on the Corniche Breakwater.
The race covers more than 38,700 nautical miles in eight months. Sailors will come to Abu Dhabi after a stop in Cape Town, before moving on to Sanya in China.
As many as 200,000 people are expected to visit the venue for the event, which runs from December 12 to January 3, Abu Dhabi’s Tourism and Culture Authority said. Activities such as dhow racing, pearl diving displays and sea shanties will be open to the public.
Tickets for the concert start at Dh300 for silver seating, with gold seating for Dh500 and platinum VIP seats costing Dh600.
Tickets can be bought through Time Out Tickets at www.timeoutickets.com or in person at the Dubai Media City box offices.
The concert will take place on December 12 and 13.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
