It was announced yesterday that the Lebanese Beiteddine Festivals will be opened on July 3 with the most popular singing play in the world Cats and will be concluded on August 10 by the Lebanese diva Fairouz.
“The British singing play Cats seen by more than 50 million persons in 150 cities throughout 20 years, will be portrayed in six evenings,” the festival head, Noura Junbulat told a press conference at Beirut’s Press Club Tuesday adding that Fairouz would return to Beiteddine for the third consecutive year in two features with which she would conclude the festival along with her son musician Ziad al Rahabani and the Armenian musical troupe.
Junbulat said, “the festival would host one concert on July 15 that will involve the King of Rai, Cheb Khaled, the Egyptian singer Hakim and the Palestinian lute player Simon Shahin. The festival will also host the Lebanese piano player Zad Multaqa along with the Lebanese Opera singer Fadia Tanab in a Muwashah (terza merza) entitled al Haramlek.
Other cultural mixtures will include Tabla Beat Science, which fuses Indian rhythms with modern electronic beats. The July 19 performance will include seven performers and will be led by Zakir Hussain on tabla, the New York-based musician and producer Bill Laswell on bass and the Indian Sirinji player Sultan Khan in addition to the Ethiopian singer Jiji.
The Spanish opera singer Jose Carreras will perform a concert on July 24 along with the Lebanese singer Rima al Tawil and Budapest Orchestra. Also the German Cabaret singer Ute Lemper who has been renowned in the world of theater, singing, music and cinema will perform a concert on July 27 while the African superstar Youssou N’Dour, whose modern pop style helped him cross over to Western audiences, will perform a concert on August 1 -- Albawaba.com
