Tunis — The prestigious Vienna Opera Ball will give a unique performance at the El Jem open air Roman Theatre (see photo), the second largest and best kept Roman theatre in the world.

The city which is also known throughout the world for its second and third century mosaics, will host the 13 th edition of the "Music and Solidarity" evening on July 4, 2009. The event was announced on Friday during a press conference held in Tunis.

All of the proceedings of the event will go to the Tunisian Solidarity Fund, also known as 26-26, following its postal money order account. Similarly to the previous editions, the Vienna Opera Ball orchestra will be directed by conductor Uwe Theimar, with Marcela Cerno as soprano and Sebastian Reinthaller as tenor.

A major addition to the program this year, is the scheduled performance by the Tunisian violin virtuoso Yasmine Azaiez, who will interpret Ludwig van Beethoven's Romance op.40 in G major. One of the world's most promising violin players, Yasmine Azaiez has already performed in the United Kingdom, in Austria , in the US, Switzerland, Dubai and Tunisia.

In the words of Mr Johann Frohlich, Austria's Ambassador to Tunisia the event is "a symbol of Tunisian-Austrian cooperation" as well as a token of "the visibility of Austrian and Tunisian culture and solidarity". He also stressed the timeliness of the event at atime when both countries are celebrating the 50 th anniversary of the setting up of diplomatic relations (1959-2009).

On his part, Mr Omar Ben Mahmoud, the Secretary of State in charge of the Tunisian Solidarity Fund underlined the Fund's contribution in eradicating the poverty rate in Tunisia (3,8%), noting that from 1992 to 2008, some 267,000 families (1 million 340 thousand people) have benefited from the Fund for a total of 904, 817 million dinars.

He also said that President Ben Ali's decision to create the Fund in 1992 stemmed for a commitment to set up a culture of solidarity in Tunisia, adding that several African countries have asked Tunisia to assist them in setting up their own solidarity fund following the Tunisian model.