Nelida Nassar March 30, 2014
Watadour is a performance attempting to decipher physically and virtually the complex world we live in. It merges different taxonomic categorizations of various art forms: dance, music, theater and drawing. The question of what is dance, what is music, what is theater or drawing? What are their different boundaries is what Watadour tries to answer throughout a mélange and hybridization of these disciplines. This is the sign of our
times defined by Zygmunt Bauman as “liquid modernity.”
The reality created on stage is everything but reassuring. Two dancers with their bodies strapped like mountain climbers perform on a circular stage that is gradually moving
from a horizontal to a vertical position. The two dancers struggle adapting their body movement and position while attempting to reach the summit or deal with their daily challenges to find themselves propelled down without ever giving up, over and
over again. A circular stage has no direction, no top or bottom except for the node
that of reality, disturbed, repositioned, shifted like a mirror, like a rotating clock or
mother earth.
Using a man-made art box that is attached to an electronic device, Mazen Kerbage moves with dexterity drips of black ink creating and projecting imagery reminiscent of the Surrealist’s écriture automatique, Jackson Pollock’s drip painting or yet the Ebru of the Ottomans’ marble paper making. The images are reflected and refracted on the circular stage merging, pulsing and punctuating the dance with brio. They enhance it and overpower it at times while being enthralling. Kerbage’s marks are the most beguiling and innovative part of the performance.
The accompanying music performed by Sherif Sehnaoui is an eclectic mix of custom tailored sound with new compositions and electro acoustic scores, a captivating pas de deux of improvised language in response to Kerbage’s gesture.
Is the dancer/the human being irretrievably condemned to the same movement or fate?
Or can he ever breaks from his shackles thus freeing himself? A compelling visual experience with a nihilist feeling permeates the entire piece that alas seems at times a tad too dislocated.
Concept/Choreography: Omar Rajeh
Original Idea / Scenography: Nasser Soumi
Dance/Creation: Mia Habis, Bassam Bou Diab
Composition/Live Music: Sharif Sehnaoui
Visual Creation (Live Setting): Mazen Kerbaj
Costumes: Mia Habis
Light Design: Jonathan Samuels
Production: Zaher Kais, Christel Salem
Set Construction: Abou Ajram Group Ajran
Produced by: Maqamat Dance Theatre
Funded by: The Norwegian Embassy in Beirut
Supported by: British Council
With the Support of: Abou Ajram Group S.A.R.L., Omar Qassem Al Issa’i Group
Nelida Nassar 02.08.2014
Recognized as a singer of exceptional artistry and versatility, Matteo El-Khodr is a captivating and inspiring young talent who is already generating excitement in the professional musical world and does not need an introduction to the Lebanese public.
His warm counter alto voice brings polished musicality to oratorio, opera, and music.
An accomplished interpreter of the music of Vivaldi, El-Khodr will sing tomorrow evening at the Assembly Hall of the American University of Beirut where he is regularly a soloist.
The conductor is the rising star none other than the violinist Mario Rai, another
Lebanese talent.
The selected repertoire celebrates Venice, her wide geographical span due to trade relations with both the East and the West was continuously influenced by musical styles that originated in many parts of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Although it historically bred a great many musicians of rare skill, the Republic frequently searched for talented performers and composers through diplomatic networks. It is no coincidence that Venitian music appealed equally to both El-Khodr and Rai. Re-appropriating its musical influence, the pair inverted Venice’s historical role by preparing a concert dedicated to bringing la Serenissima to the Orient thus our shores with a rich program of:
George Frideric Handel: Serse: FrondiTenere / Ombra mai fu
George Frideric Handel: Giulio Cesare / Al lampo dell’armi
Geminiano Giacomelli: Merope / Sposa non mi conosci
Arcangelo Corelli: Concerto Grosso N.8 (fatto per la notte di natale)
George Frideric Handel: Rinaldo / Venti Turbini
Antonio Vivaldi: Farnacce / Gelido in ogni vena
Alessandro Scarlatti: Il Pompeo / O cessate di piagarmi
Riccardo Broschi: Artaserse / Son qual nave agitate
Both artists focuses also on presenting famous and less known composers’ works that were the first to include dynamics and instrumentation style and technique for both voice and instrument repertoire. What other surprises the tuneful, graceful music may bring? It is certain that the bright Rai and the theatrical and gifted El Khodr will certainly not disappoint with their stylistic interpretation?
El-Khodr will continue with a European tour that include
Saint Moritz: February 17, 2014
Zurich: February 19, 2014
La Salle Pleyel: February 25, 2014
Paris la Cite de la Musique: March 18, 2014 where he will recreate the role of Hyacinthus in Mozart’s first opera Apollon and Hyacinthe
Nélida Nassar 07.20.2013
It was almost 9.30 pm last night when Dee Dee Bridgewater accompanied by Ramsey Lewis and his quintet, including Tim Gant (keyboards), Charles Heath (drums), Henry Johnson (guitar), Joshua Ramos (electric bass) and Charles IV (percussion) walked on the stage of the sublime Beiteddine Palace large courtyard. Mrs. Bridgewater and Mr. Lewis are each three-time Grammy Award-winning artists whose constantly versatile and evolving careers have spanned over several decades. They both have secured their permanent place in the jazz’s pantheon, she as a vocalist and he as a pianist. The audience was eagerly anticipating the inexhaustible, ever-commanding artist in every medium, Dee Dee Bridgewater and the polished and melodically driven Ramsey Lewis, it was indeed rewarded by the most ubiquitous and respected figures in contemporary music, two exceptional stars.
Bridgewater exploring and swinging some of her favorite tubes combined a healthy amount of chat with her audience presenting each song in French, the language of her adopted country. Throughout the evening, she mixed things up in a way that kept her audience not knowing what wonderful musical surprise would come next. Bridgewater started the performance with Bruce Cockburn’s The way she smiles by managing to strike the perfect balance between drawing the focus in on her singing then leaving the stage to give Mr. Ramsey and his quintet the room to present their brilliant selection and contribution of pure unsung jazz beat and rhythm. So the jazz aficionados could get their “fix,” but she also allowed for the limelight to return quickly back to her artistry and command, coming back on stage to join Ramsey in his classical, wildly complex and Latin influenced piece Brazilica. She followed it by Nancy Wilson’s romantic and expressive Save your Love.
Ramsey’s talent was limitless, with his generous spirit he was not threatened by sharing the spotlight with each and every member of his amazing group. He clearly delighted in giving them frequent and extended opportunities to showcase their individual abilities. Joshua Ramos is a prodigiously talented master of extended techniques performing on his electrical bass. His chameleonic dexterity bolstered the proceedings with impetuous flair. He seamlessly integrated intervallic multi-phonics into shifting musical changes. He crafted nervy staccato variations and elliptical rhythms while showing lyrical restraint. Charles Heath drumming and Ramos bass offbeat thunks, perfectly timed with Mr. Ramsey’s that neatly showed how one harmony could be re-colored in endless ways rhythm, blues and pop/rock material, manifesting all elements in the same song, without shifting its ground, providing a subtle backdrop to engaging percussionist Charles VI’s exploding musical beats.
Ramos and Heath navigated respectively the drum’s and bass’ exigent but accessible structures with spirited aplomb, underscoring Ramsey’s cascading filigrees interweaving lines with an intuitive ebb and flow that balances strength with sophistication. Henry Johnson’s fingers flew over the strings of his guitar, creating smooth tone and style while his joy over his musical experience was contagious and energizing. The quintet reflected the independent spirit of its pioneering artist Ramsey whose intrepid enthusiasm manifests itself in his choice of these gifted young collaborators. They displayed boundless creativity that derived equal inspiration from both past and future tunes.
Following Mr. Lewis and his quintet solo performance, Ramsey ceded his piano to Mr. Edsel Gomez, while Ms. Bridgewater and the band continued with Stevie Wonders and Michael Jackson’s harmonious and melismatic melody of I Can’t Help It, the soft jazz Michael Frank’s Night Movie, and Harry Connick Junior’s One Fine Thing that ended up with smooth transition to Billie Holiday’s God Bless the Child, which opened up with a flawless performance of phrasing manipulation and tempo. Ms. Bridgewater, conversely, is a born crowd-pleaser, and just how theatrical and sassy she became was fully apparent in One Fine Thing. She sang distinctive and unique polyrhythmic interpretations that were all adeptly arranged by pianist and musical director, Edsel Gomez, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and currently resides in New York.
Ms. Bridgewater is a remarkable, world-class purveyor of this classic jazz material. She gets this aspect of performance absolutely right every time. One of her trademarks is fragmenting an entire line or two of a lyric into a rapid-fire, evenly accented staccato and tessitura. Her ability to understand with a disturbing finesse, the human experience and rendering it through this voice that she can manipulate any way she wants is unique. Audiences around the world often attend performances by one exceptional artist. At the Beiteddine Art Festival, the spectators were doubly rewarded by an uplifting concert, loose, energetic, tender and edgy as well as by listening to two timeless giants. The evening over-riding memory was of the sheer exuberance of the music, and that joyfulness shines through not only in the tracks with great old stagers such as Ms. Bridgewater and Mr. Davis but with Mr. Gomez and the quintet, too.
ART & CULTURE TODAY 