The ensemble Les Cordes Résonnantes on the stage of the Ajaltoun Festival in "Wayna Nay?!" the tribute show to the Baalbeck Festival. (Credit: Nabil Ismail)
While television screens and social media were occupied on Monday night with debating the truth of reports about Hezbollah military tunnels beneath the ancient temples of Baalbeck, the ensemble Les Cordes résonnantes opened the Ajaltoun Festival evenings with Wayna Nay?!, a show paying tribute to the City of the Sun and the Baalbeck International Festival on the 70th anniversary of its founding.Created by the ensemble's founders, artists Elie Sfeir and Joe Daou — who also conducted the orchestra — the show, combining music, theater, and song, begins with the appearance of actor Noah Mokaddem in the role of Jean Cocteau, searching for Nay, his imaginary beloved who no longer comes to visit or leave flowers on his grave. He returns to Lebanon to find out what has become of her.The idea of reviving poet, writer, and director Jean...
While television screens and social media were occupied on Monday night with debating the truth of reports about Hezbollah military tunnels beneath the ancient temples of Baalbeck, the ensemble Les Cordes résonnantes opened the Ajaltoun Festival evenings with Wayna Nay?!, a show paying tribute to the City of the Sun and the Baalbeck International Festival on the 70th anniversary of its founding.Created by the ensemble's founders, artists Elie Sfeir and Joe Daou — who also conducted the orchestra — the show, combining music, theater, and song, begins with the appearance of actor Noah Mokaddem in the role of Jean Cocteau, searching for Nay, his imaginary beloved who no longer comes to visit or leave flowers on his grave. He returns to Lebanon to find out what has become of her.The idea of reviving poet, writer, and director Jean...