I assume this is part of the Business Bay project

was it in any newspaper? At least not gulf news

we can merge threads later on when we know what exactly this is

As far as I know Dubai (or the UAE) doesn't have an orchestra. It'll need one if it wants to build this. Opera and classical music in general is a worldwide thing, like football so I don't think there's anything major got to do with foreign culture attached to it. It would be like saying let's not build a football stadium since football doesn't come from out culture. DUBAI, in a city of 1.5m there should more than enough people who would go to concerts. Usually there's a membership and some people go every Friday night while others go now and again.

I get the feeling somehow that it'll rip off the Sydney one though

Oh right. I thought there were hardly any of these sorts of stuff being built.

Swell, you don't actually need super-high profile concerts to fill a hall. In Dublin for example, the orchestra plays a lunchtime concert and an evening concert each once a week. They're always full and the reason for this is the same people go again and again. The same way some people go to the cinema every weekend to chill out, these people so the same but go to concerts.

If so much is already being built not much need I guess. But Dubai needs an orchestra, that's all I can say