April 26, 2002

The Daily Star

Lord of the Dance, world Irish dance champion Michael Flatley’s celebrated Celtic tale of good versus evil, will headline the 25th Baalbek International Festival in July, festival organizers announced Thursday.
In addition, the musical Cats will open the Beiteddine Festival on July 4 with the British cast of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. The world-acclaimed Spanish tenor Jose Carreras will perform for the second time in Lebanon, on July 24, and will be accompanied by Lebanese soprano Rima Tawil, a recipient of the Scala de Milan award, and the Budapest Concert Orchestra.
Joining Lord of the Dance in the line-up will be Brazilian samba maestro Gilberto Gil, world-famous opera husband and wife Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu and the Alban Berg chamber quartet from Vienna, Baalbek Festival committee president May Arida announced at press conference at the Press Federation.
The Lebanese contribution to the month-long Baalbek Festival, which opens July 5 and runs through Aug. 9, will come from the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra, the Caracalla Dance Theater and actress Nidal al-Achkar, who will perform poetry and music from the East.
The program was announced amid much pomp on Thursday.
Arida, who expressed sadness at the current turbulent situation in the Middle East, said that the festival’s message was one of “culture and peace.”
This year’s line-up reflects the domino effect of Sept. 11 and the violence in the region. The committee was unable to book an international pop superstar such as Sting, who performed last year, and said an American was out of the question. Two years ago, Latin American guitarist Carlos Santana, a winner that year of nine Grammy awards, pulled out of the festival over concerns about Lebanon’s stability.
Maya Halabi, who is in charge of publicity for the festival, told The Daily Star: “This year we did not even try to invite any American performers because we knew they would not come considering the ‘war on terrorism’ and the troubles in Israel/Palestine.”
The committee has managed, however, to bring a vastly superior and talented group of musicians and performers ­ though perhaps less well known ­ to Baalbek.
Flatley’s Lord of the Dance is the most popular touring dance production in history. Four million people and audiences across every continent have witnessed the show. It is a blend of traditional and modern Celtic music and dance, performed by 50 dancers who tell a tale of love and passion and the battle to win out over the night as the Lord of the Dance is challenged by the Dark Lord, Don Dorcha.
Flatley said of Lord of the Dance: “It is not done like ballet, it is not done like tap. And it is not done like Flamenco. It is something that I had to create from scratch because nothing else would fit there.”
With the troupe completing an estimated 151,200 taps per performance,  and backed up with state-of-the-art staging, lighting, pyrotechnics and colorful costumes, Lord of the Dance will definitely win the popular vote from audiences.
In contrast, the Caracalla Dance Theater will perform a brand-new and eagerly-awaited production entitled Two Thousand and One Nights, an updated version of 1001 Nights.
Directed by Ivan Caracalla and choreographed by Alissar Caracalla, the show will have majestic sets and an original score with oriental orchestration of Maurice Ravel’s Bolero, Rimsky Korsakov’s Sheherazade as well as a Toufic al-Bacha composition.
Caracalla Dance Theater founder Abdel-Halim Caracalla said the show was “a huge, sensuous production which will reflect and extol the Lebanese people and their traditions.”
But it is the Brazilian artistic genius, protest singer Gilberto Gil, who will attract the most interest from Lebanon’s bohemian young and hip crowd. Following the festival’s theme of peace, Gil will be performing his new Kaya N’Gan Daya tour, a tribute to Bob Marley.
It may well be the highlight of the festival. Gil has been one of the most important singers, composers and guitarists of modern Brazilian music over the last 29 years. He is a distinguished personality on the Brazilian cultural scene and has recorded 32 records with albums released all over the world.
He is known for playing samba, bossa nova and baiao and has worked with international artists ranging from Latin superstars Ellis Regina and Sergio Mendes  to Jamaican reggae star Jimmy Cliff and Sting. His compositions are characterized by a remarkable versatility and a variety of themes ranging from human behavior to issues of social importance. He upset Brazilian authorities so much that he was forced to live in London from 1969 to 1972.
For the classical program, the Alban Berg Quartet will perform. It launches the festival on July 5 with an evening of what has been described as the definitive renditions of Beethoven, Brahms, Berg and Bartok by a modern chamber music quartet.
In August, Alagna and Gheorghiu will perform Arias from Verdi, Donizetti, Puccini and Chenier. The pair have performed in Romeo and Julliet at London’s Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, in La Boheme I Paris and were in the opera-movie Tosca by director Benoit Jacquot.
They will be accompanied by the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra, which will also perform separately during the festival. ­ With agencies

official
schedule

Alban Berg Quartet
July 5 ­ Temple of Bacchus
Tickets: LL150,000

Caracalla Dance Theater
July 11-13 ­ Temple of Jupiter
LL30,000 - LL120,000

Gilberto Gil
July 20 ­ Temple of Jupiter
LL45,000 - LL120,000

Lord of the Dance
July 25-27 ­ Temple of Jupiter
LL45,000 - LL150,000

The Lebanese Symphony
Orchestra
Aug. 2 ­ Temple of Jupiter
ticket prices not available

Roberto Alagna and
Angela Gheorghiu
Aug. 3 ­ Temple of Jupiter
LL45,000 - LL240,000

Nidal al-Achkar
Aug. 9 ­ Temple of Bacchus
LL45,000 - LL60,000

Copyright © The Daily Star