And the answer is nothing. The opera is being put through its annual dry cleaning operation, and is more or less out of commission until autumn. Dressed in black costumes they neither solicit their audience nor pull their repertoire around to suit fashion. They offer richesse, but like so many of their colleagues, don't know what do with it. Evanescence suits them.
Life flows evenly enough for the sisters' visions, but it's a hard, unrelenting rhythm.
Not for nothing are they called Banat Al-Nil. These Norn-like sisters offer joy, misfortune and escape, but are not without hope. The tunes are themselves part of an uneasy miracle, the recent history of Egypt. The Nile girls are not as simple as they often sound. Like the Nile they have always looked the same, but of course they are not.