Saudi Arabia to employ French experts to set up opera and orchestra, will also enter films at Cannes Film Festival
Crown prince has already announced the lifting of a ban on women driving, the reopening of cinemas for the first time in over three decades and new mixed-gender concerts despite opposition from religious hardliners
Saudi Arabia is to use French expertise to set up a national opera and orchestra under an agreement signed on Monday that underlined the modernising agenda of the kingdom’s crown prince as he began his official trip to Paris.
The deal will see the Paris opera company help the ultra-conservative Islamic nation produce its own classical music and shows, a further sign of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s desire to change the image of his homeland.
He has already announced the lifting of a ban on women driving, the reopening of cinemas for the first time in over three decades and new mixed-gender concerts despite opposition from religious hardliners.
The kingdom revealed on Monday that it would enter short films at the Cannes Film Festival for the first time and send an official delegation to the celebration of often edgy and subversive silver-screen art on the Riviera this May.
Speaking with her Saudi counterpart, French Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen said she had also discussed “the importance of translating books in both directions, from Arab into French and French into Arab”.
With a rich tradition of storytelling, Saudi Arabia is embarking on the development of a sustainable and dynamic [film] industry
Prince Mohammed, known widely by his initials MBS, dined with President Emmanuel Macron at Paris’s historic Louvre museum on Sunday night after flying in on his first trip to France as the heir to the Saudi throne.