Cairo Opera Company

Kamy, Hassan (Cairo, 1941)

Egyptian tenor and administrator. He studied in Cairo with Geilane Rathle and then in Rome with Achille Braschi. In 1963 he made his début at the Cairo Opera House, as Edgardo, and the next year he joined the newly formed Cairo Opera Company, singing Alfredo (in Arabic) in the opening production.

His international début was in Russia in 1970, as Rodolfo; he went on to sing Turiddu at the Bolshoy in Moscow and in Leningrad, in 1972, and Cavaradossi in Warsaw; followed by performances in Sofia and other east European houses.

He was the first Egyptian tenor to sing Radames, at Vilnius in 1974, going on to sing the role in Rome in 1976, before the Pyramids in Cairo in 1987 and at the Metropolitan, New York, in 1991. He has also performed in Barcelona, at the Paris Opéra and at the Chicago Lyric, and has sung in many Egyptian operettas and in films.

He was appointed artistic director of the new Cairo Opera House in 1991.

CHARLES PITT published in the New Grove Opera Encyclopedia 1999