Marcel Khalifeh, on the oud, opens the 32nd edition of the al-Bustan Festival in an atmosphere of musical inheritance, tinged with gentle, playful irony. (Credit: Nabil Ismail/Al-Bustan Festival)
The 32nd edition of the al-Bustan Festival opened Tuesday night like a family reunion. On stage, three figures respond to one another: Marcel Khalifeh, the patriarch on the oud, is joined by his son Rami on piano and his nephew Sary on cello. With Ghatt al-Hamam, the musician and singer invites the audience to join in, teasing them playfully and sparing no one — even members of the Ministerial Cabinet, several of whom were guests of Laura Lahoud, vice president of the festival and Minister of Tourism.
In Rita, a haunting adaptation of Mahmoud Darwish’s poem, love falters under the weight of war and exile. The melody drifts forward on quiet, tentative steps, steeped in nostalgia yet untouched by sentimentality. Rami Khalifeh follows with a piano solo, Requiem for Beirut — sweeping and meditative, passionate and wild, a heartfelt elegy for the city that bears its scars. Charbel and Nadim Rouhana later join the stage, weaving their voices and instruments into a seamless musical conversation where tradition and the present intertwine. The concert will be performed Wednesday evening.
The program, running through March 22, alternates between large symphonic frescoes and chamber music. The Youth Orchestra of Yerevan accompanies the Choi sisters in Brahms’s Double Concerto, followed by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 under the baton of Sergey Smbatyan. Bach’s Goldberg Variations unite Renaud Capuçon, Paul Zientara and Krzysztof Michalski, while Capuçon meets Guillaume Bellom in Brahms sonatas. The Moreau Trio performs Schubert, and Victor and Alice Julien-Laferrière perform together as a family.
A moment of rare distinction: Sir Bryn Terfel, the Welsh bass hailed as one of today’s greatest operatic voices, takes the stage for a recital spanning iconic opera arias and British repertoire. Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Dvořák’s Stabat Mater complete the program, alongside the Geniušas duo performing Schubert and Rachmaninov, the Trio Hermès, an evening of tango with Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi, Macedonian music reimagined by Simon Trpčeski, and a finale led by Jahida Wehbeh, setting texts by Mahmoud Darwish and Gibran Khalil Gibran to music.
And to carry the spirit of sharing beyond concert halls, the Yerevan Youth Orchestra will perform Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony Saturday at 11 a.m. on the Ain al-Mreisseh corniche against the backdrop of the sea, offering both passersby and music lovers an open-air musical interlude.
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