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Home , Steven Van Zandt, The River Tour, The River Tour (2016)

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2016 Concert kicks off leading up to opening of Louvre Abu Dhabi

season of events leading up to the open- of art. “That it is being celebrated with music is ing later this year of the Louvre Abu beautiful,” he said. Fathallah Ahmed, a compos- ADhabi has kicked off with a concert mix- who was part of the team that worked on ing traditional Arab music with a classical merging the music written by Emirati oud player Western orchestra. Led by German-born con- Faisal al-Saari with the classical Western sym- ductor Christoph Eschenbach, the performance phony, called the performance “a very valuable on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat island on Wednesday opportunity to introduce Emirati music to the evening saw 10 Emirati musicians playing along- West”. side 120 members of the Vienna-based Gustav Built at a cost of $500 million euros, the Mahler youth orchestra. The ambitious Louvre Louvre Abu Dhabi will feature 9,200 square Abu Dhabi project, announced with much fan- meters (100,000 square feet) of gallery space. fare nearly a decade ago, aims to promote the Many of ’s grand museums, including the oil-rich United Arab Emirates as a leader in the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay and the Palace of global art world. Versailles, will loan art to Abu Dhabi as part of a It has faced repeated delays but the opening 30-year collaboration with the Emirate worth of the museum-set to host more than 300 works one billion euros. Officials have described the including from Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent Louvre Abu Dhabi-designed by French architect van Gogh-is now set for the end of this year. Jean Nouvel-as the largest cultural project in the Speaking to AFP before the performance, world since New York’s Metropolitan Museum Eschenbach called the upcoming opening “a opened in 1870.— AFP Emirati men watch a concert conducted by Gernan-born music conductor Christoph very important step” in the global development Eschenbach.

German-born music conductor Christoph Eschenbach leads an orchestra playing local Gulf melodies merged German-born music conductor Christoph Eschenbach leads the orchestra. with Western symphonies in a performance inspired by the Louvre Abu Dhabi in the Emirati capital. — AFP photos Springsteen bids adieu to Memorial Sports Arena here’s no better musical act to bid adieu to Springsteen told the crowd before launching “Thunder Road,” widely considered one of the But Springsteen is a guy-an artist, a hero-who the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena into his three-and-a-half-hour set (two hours of greatest rock songs ever recorded. Its prophetic understands that without sadness there can be Tthan and the E Street “The River” and one-and-a-half hours of more lyric “I got this guitar and I learned how to make no joy, without endings there can be no begin- Band, who kicked off their first of three final mainstream Springsteen hits). “I wanted to make it talk” prompted attendees at last night’s show nings. These tropes were manifested in last shows on “The River” tour Tuesday night at the a big record that felt like life. I wanted it to con- (and every show) to clench their eyes shut and night’s rousing rendition of “Tenth Avenue storied venue, an oblong husk of steel and peel- tain laughter and friendship and tears.” strum along on air guitar. Springsteen fans don’t Freeze-Out” from Springsteen’s breakout 1975 ing vinyl seats that opened in July 1959 and From languid ballad “Independence Day”- merely sing his songs-they commune with album, “,” a account of how where Springsteen (who famously dubbed it ”the first song I wrote about fathers and sons, them. Springsteen and his E Street family-including “the dump that jumps”) has performed over 30 the kind of song you write when you are , , , times throughout the course of his iconic career. young,” Springsteen said-to the hopeful and , and -came Saturday, March 19, will mark the arena’s swan- upbeat “” and the wistful, roman- together. A longtime staple at Springsteen song before it’s demolished (cue references to tic melody “I Wanna Marry You,” to “Drive All shows, the song has since become a memorial Springsteen’s “Wrecking Ball.”) Night” and the album’s eponymous track, “The and tribute to founding E Street members At 66 years old, Springsteen knows some- River,” with its sullen, blue-collar lyrics about , who died in 2008, and saxo- thing of love and loss, and one could easily draw teenage pregnancy and economic depression phonist , the “big man (who) comparisons between the sports arena’s aes- and the harsh effects of real life on young love, joined the band” and died in 2011. This concept thetic fall from grace and the themes of perplex- Springsteen revealed himself through story of loss in the midst of life was perhaps best ing adulthood and inscrutable relationships and song the way he always does, naturally summed up by the way in which Springsteen inherent in “The River,” the landmark 1980 dou- and eloquently-as a songwriter, as orator, as described “The River” album at the show’s start: ble-sided album that Springsteen and his band philosopher. “The River is about time, time slipping away as played in its entirety to a packed audience made you walk alongside your own mortality and real- up of fervent fans for whom the Jersey-born Darkness and despair ize how you have a limited amount of time to rocker is far more than a performer, but a spiritu- “If you lose your love, do you lose yourself?” love.” — Reuters al touchstone for whom they will make multiple mused Springsteen before his track “Stolen Car,” pilgrimages during any given tour. (As one life- a song lamenting a married couple’s drifting long fan put it, “I count of how many shows apart, his oft-plied imagery of the car a I’ve been to at around 75 and the year 2006.” metaphor for escape and solace in the face of Another fan, with a graying mullet cut and a red darkness and despair. While “The River,” haunt- bandanna tied around her neck, flew from ing and dirge-like and obscure, might have for the performance, wearing a t-shirt underwhelmed-infuriated, even more casual that read “I crossed shark infested waters for Springsteen concert-goers aching for his radio ‘The River.’”) favorites, the “Boss” did not disappoint, churn- “‘The River’ was my coming of age record,” ing out hits like “,” “Rosalita” and Bruce Springsteen