Jack Lang on the esplanade of the Arab World Institute (IMA), in Jan. 2024. (Thomas Samson/AFP)
They are singers, actresses, dancers and poets of the stage. Discreet Fairuz, life-loving Sabah, outspoken Warda, fragile Dalida, elusive Asmahan — they have crystallized, through their failings and struggles, interpretations and vibratos, the rebellions and moods of a region that, for the duration of a melody, forgot its machismo and misfortunes.Honored at the Arab World Institute (IMA) in 2021, during the first major exhibition presented after the Covid-19 crisis, the female icons of the past — now more relevant and understood — return to inspire Beirut at the Sursock Museum (opening Friday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m.) through the beginning of 2026. Jack Lang, president of the IMA and emblematic former Minister of Culture under President François Mitterrand, shares with L’Orient-Le Jour his meetings and interviews with a number of these stars....
They are singers, actresses, dancers and poets of the stage. Discreet Fairuz, life-loving Sabah, outspoken Warda, fragile Dalida, elusive Asmahan — they have crystallized, through their failings and struggles, interpretations and vibratos, the rebellions and moods of a region that, for the duration of a melody, forgot its machismo and misfortunes.Honored at the Arab World Institute (IMA) in 2021, during the first major exhibition presented after the Covid-19 crisis, the female icons of the past — now more relevant and understood — return to inspire Beirut at the Sursock Museum (opening Friday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m.) through the beginning of 2026. Jack Lang, president of the IMA and emblematic former Minister of Culture under President François Mitterrand, shares with L’Orient-Le Jour his meetings and interviews with a number of...
