Abu Dhabi Festival presents the show at Emirates Palace Theater

«Passion of the Buddha». 95 minutes of music, love and tolerance

The work is created by composer Tan Don. From the source

The 20th edition of the Abu Dhabi Festival, which concluded yesterday, organized the Middle East premiere of the masterpiece "Passion of the Buddha", created by the composer Oscar and Grammy Tan Don. The show was hosted by the Emirates Palace Theatre, which also featured 'From West to East: A Classic Odyssey'.

Prior to the show, and on behalf of Sheikha Shamsa bint Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, Patron of the Abu Dhabi Festival, Sheikh Salem bin Khalid Al Qasimi, Minister of Culture and Youth, Founder of Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation and Founder and Artistic Director of Abu Dhabi Festival Huda Ibrahim Al Khamis, honoured international composer Tan Don with the Abu Dhabi Festival Award presented by the Festival in partnership with Chopard, in recognition of Tan Don's continuous passion, innovative contribution and pioneering achievement in the arts and classical music scene with contemporary influences.

"Buddha's Passion" took the audience on a dazzling 95-minute journey combining classical music with Western and Eastern traditions, telling six proverbs and stories from East Asian and Chinese cultural heritage in particular. Through hymns, tales and sounds, the work weaves a breathtaking sonic masterpiece, capturing the Buddha's teachings, travels and shared human notions of love, tolerance and sacrifice.

Huda Ibrahim Al Khamis expressed her happiness that the Festival honored the international composer and conductor Tan Dun with the Abu Dhabi Festival Award in recognition of his outstanding achievements, innovative contributions to contemporary music, and his dedication to promoting peace and intercultural dialogue through his exceptional work, expressing the Abu Dhabi Festival's pride in introducing Tan Don to his audience in the work "Passion of the Buddha".

She said: "The Abu Dhabi Festival offered its audience the opportunity to meet a multi-skilled artist in his presence for the first time in the Middle East on the stage of Emirates Palace, as he is a visual artist, curator, writer, composer and cultural ambassador for (Expo Shanghai), in addition to the uniqueness of his work (Passion of the Buddha), which sails the audience on a journey full of masterpieces of classical music, and inspired by inherited oriental traditions such as wisdom and faith in a creative expression of the common cultural and human values that the UAE believes in, as it continues to call for human fraternity. Enlightenment and dialogue of beliefs and religions in light of peaceful coexistence."

Hoda Al-Khamis:

• "(Buddha's Passion) takes the audience on a journey filled with classical music and inspired by ancestral oriental traditions."