Daily Star – Lebanon

An enchanting evening in tribute to the Star of the Orient

Beiteddine Festival opens with Amal Maher’s renderings of the music of
Oum Kalthoum

By Matthew Mosley
Daily Star staff

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Review

Beiteddine: "A Tribute to Oum Kalthoum" might sound a terrible
idea. The Egyptian diva, known variously as "Kawkab al-Sharq" ("The
Star of the Orient") or "Al-Sitt" ("The Lady"), has such a legendary
presence that any pretender to her throne seems bound for
disaster. Like an actress playing Marilyn Monroe or a painter copying
the canvases of Vincent van Gogh, there might seem something
ridiculous about another singer taking on the oeuvre of Kalthoum.
Within half an hour, however, Amal Maher had won over any
doubters. The Egyptian vocalist, playing the part of Kalthoum for the
Beiteddine Festival’s opening night spectacular, let out a long,
breath-defying wail as part of the opening number, "Inta Amri" ("You
Are My Life"), that left her audience in admiration.
Dressed in a diaphanous white gown, Maher looked impossibly leggy, as
if she were wearing stilts. Perhaps she was: On the couple of
occasions when the singer left her position by the microphone to say a
word to the conductor, movement seemed to be achieved only with
difficulty.
Maher’s stage presence wasn’t necessarily dynamic, but her voice was
distraction enough. Considering the vocalist’s slim frame, the power
of her lungs was incredible. Somehow delicate yet forceful, Maher’s
dulcet tones frequently raised hairs on the back of the neck.
Kalthoum’s songs are famous for their repetitive quality: She would
intone a phrase over and over again, each time subtly altering the
emotional emphasis, bringing her audiences to a trance-like state. It
is a testament to Maher’s talent that she seemed able to evoke a
similar feeling of collective euphoria. In the main courtyard of
Beiteddine’s Palace, many audience members swayed and shimmied with
their eyes closed, almost rising up out of their chairs with the
desire to move to the music.
But Maher did not create this magic all by herself. The singer was
backed up by a full 24-piece orchestra, led by Palestinian-Egyptian
conductor Selim Sahab. Currently artistic director of the Cairo Opera,
Sahab is a familiar figure in this city: He founded the Beirut Arab
Music Ensemble here in 1980.
Flamboyantly dressed in a white tuxedo, the conductor compensated for
any lack of movement in Maher’s performance. Whipping the
instrumentalists through a series of splendid orchestrations, Sahab
was bursting with energy.
The large orchestra lent a wonderful richness to the
proceedings. "Kalimat" featured a number of tremulous, breathy solos
on the ney, a variant on the flute that’s blown from the top like a
clarinet. At the end of these solos, as the audience crashed back into
the fray, the luscious depth of the full-blown sound was particularly
noticeable.
Kalthoum’s songs demand a greater degree of attention than the
three-minute ditties that litter today’s pop music landscape. A
typical Kalthoum concert would involve the performance of around three
songs over a period of three to six hours. "A Tribute to Oum Kalthoum"
wasn’t on quite such an epic scale. Maher performed four songs over a
little more than two hours.
Interspersed throughout the evening were excerpts from French, English
and Arabic documentaries on Al-Sitt’s life. The audience was granted
glimpses of her extraordinary story, from being dressed up as a boy by
her father at the beginning of her singing career to negotiating the
regimes of King Farouk and then Gamal Abdel Nasser, eventually
becoming a symbol of Revolutionary Egypt.

Lining a gallery behind the stage was a selection of photographs of
the diva from every stage of her career, mounted on wonderfully kitsch
shocking-pink. In many of the black-and-white images, Kalthoum had
been hand-colored in hyper-real hues, as though in apotheosis of the
pop-culture icon.
The remaining acts of Beiteddine Festival have something to live up to
after such a splendid beginning. Hot on the heels of the opening is,
however, another legend: Charles Aznevour. Voted as Entertainer of the
Century by CNN and Time Online in 1998, Beirut audiences have the
opportunity to see the Armenian-French tenor in action at Beiteddine
on July 9.
The recent fracas surrounding Moroccan-French comedian Gad Elmaleh
means that he’s ducked out of his three-day appearance at the
festival. Next on the agenda is Emir Kusturica with The No Smoking
Orchestra on July 18.
The multi-talented Kusturica is also a filmmaker, twice receiving a
Palme d’Or at Cannes and also a Silver Bear at Berlin. In his musical
incarnation, the polymath is a purveyor of energetic gypsy-rock, sure
to set legs jiggling and heads bopping in the Beiteddine auditorium.
July 22 sees an appearance from Madeleine Peyroux, the American
jazz-influenced singer-songwriter. Publicity-eschewing Peyroux has not
managed to achieve anonymity with her highly popular albums, such as
2004’s "Careless Love" and "Half the Perfect World."
One of Lebanon’s most successful sons makes a rare live appearance on
July 25. Gabriel Yared, internationally celebrated as a soundtrack
composer for such films as "The English Patient" and "The Talented
Mr. Ripley," will be performing a selection of his scores alongside
projected film clips. Yared’s piano will be accompanied by the
Budapest Symphony Orchestra and soprano Gaelle Mechaly, so the evening
promises to be an audio-visual spectacular.
Hanine y Son Cubano make a welcome return to the festival stage on
July 31. Performing a curious yet infectious blend of traditional
Arabic tarab with Cuban rhythms, the big-band group was formed by
avant-garde producer Michel Elefteriades. Hanine’s debut album spent a
whole year at the top of Lebanon’s best-seller chart, making their
Beiteddine appearance a hotly-awaited event.
Another regular at the festival is Armenian-Arabic fusion artist Guy
Manoukian. Fresh from the release of his new album, the singer and
composer will appear at Beiteddine on August 9.
In celebration of Jerusalem’s year as Arab Culture Capital, composer,
singer and oud player Marcel Khalife will be making a special
appearance with the Palestinian Youth Orchestra. A thunderous 100-part
orchestra and choir will apply themselves to "Ahmad al-Arabie," a
poetic opera with lyrics from Mahmoud Darwish. The vocal talents of
Oumayma al-Khalil and Reem Talhami will augment what promises to be a
must-see evening.
Last but not least comes Kadim al-Sahir, the Iraqi heart-throb,
returning to Beiteddine by popular demand. One of the most successful
singers of the Arabic world, with album sales of more than 30 million
under his belt, the singer will again charm Beiteddine audiences with
his rendering of the poetry of Nizar Kabbani.

Tickets for all events can be purchased from Virgin Megastores. For
further information, call +961 1 999 666

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