Thirty minutes into 6pm on Thursday, November 9, 2006, the lights in the hall at the National Theatre dimmed as the spotlight centered on Fantahun Shewankochew, coordinator and assistant director of the musical scene “Let There be Light” and master of ceremonies for the evening.

After welcoming guests and introducing the sample musical scene that was to take place that evening. Fantahun took a bow, and disappeared behind the thick burgundy curtains that lifted some minutes later to unveil a 42-member orchestra. They took a bow, applause erupted, the conductor waved his hands and the symphony began.

Three musical pieces later, complete darkness enfolded the theatre and the sound of wind took over, and then the booming voice of a man was heard as he started to narrate The World is Created in Amharic.
 

“The world is created; Century is counted! So, life started and commenced; For it is a firm word; Which already existed; Which also still exists; And will be so in the future!”

The narration continued, the music began to play and the lights came on to reveal around 20 dancers lying on the stage floor with 56 choir members behind the orchestra standing at the back of the stage.

Choreographer, Melaku HabteGebriel, in the first act had created a dance composition that intended to symbolize the birth of life on earth. As the music played on, so did the movements that make more and more sense as one kept watching.

After the part was done, again there was darkness. The sounds of the wind and another narration; this time on Lucy and her depiction as the mother of all civilizations. The spotlight came on to show a pregnant Lucy walking to the center of the stage to lie on the floor while cradling her round belly; she let out a scream representing the birth. Slowly but surely performers lying on the stage started rising in twos as they begin performing different cultural dances from different regions of Ethiopia as well as the world to the same music.

It is the last act and the show is concluded with a speech delivered by Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mahmud Drir. “Let There be Light” is but a mere sample scenario of a greater and bigger ceremony that will be held in honor of the approaching Ethiopian Millennium in September 2007.

The reason that this event was organized, according to Fantahun, is so that prospective sponsors could receive a sneak preview of what the bigger Millennium Symphony will be like.

“Now that they have actually seen an introduction to it, we could send proposals out and they will in actuality know what we are trying to achieve,” he said.

Fantahun said that so far Solomon Gizaw, who has been the sole financier, has spent over 50, 000 Br on the preparation for the evening of dance and music that was organized. He said that preparing for the September event will be even more expensive, therefore sponsors are necessary.