Fez Festival - day two

The beautiful grounds of the Batha Museum was perfect for the late afternoon concert of spiritual chants from Syria. Inside, a capacity crowd was packed in, while outside those unfortunate to not have tickets, sat in the nearby streets listening to the music floating over the walls.

The concert opened with Omar Sermini from Aleppo. His lute playing and singing was greeted with warmth by the audience, but it was not until a “whirling dervish” took to the floor that they became entranced. The tall Syrian stood for a few moments to centre himself and then began a slow and beautiful spinning motion that went on and on, increasing in speed. For anyone who has not seen such a devotional dance, it is hard to explain the effect on an audience. It seems impossible that he can get faster – and yet he does. Yet, not once does he deviate from the spot on which he stands. His costume flares out and I was not alone in thinking that surely he would spin upwards into the air!


Sermini was followed by the extraordinary muezzin, Hassan Haffar.


Also from Aleppo, Haffar’s voice was transporting. In some ways, like the sufi dancer that preceded him, one wondered just how much more he could give. His vocal technique and breath control was simply amazing. However it was the relentless rhythm and slow crescendos that lifted the crowd to active participation. Indeed, some Western visitors, who looked as if they had just arrived from an ashram in India, gave it the full hippy-trippy arm waving routine so familiar at rock concerts!

After the tranquil surroundings of the Batha, the Bab Makina, at the entrance to the Royal Palace was a riot of colour and decoration. Those responsible for the lighting and set dressing of the area deserve a huge vote of thanks. It is a truly splendid result.

In such a setting it would have been easy for the performers to be upstaged by their surroundings, but this was not to be. In fact it is hard to imagine anything upstaging the Flamenco singer Esperanza Fernandez.

Her voice and energy was so captivating that she easily dominated the entire venue. A devotee on the works of Manuel de Falla, Fernandez deserves her international reputation. Although her ownership of the material and the range of her voice being superb, most of all it was her passion that gripped the audience – from agony to ecstasy, from despair to deep love, her voice painted the emotions in a vivid pyrotechnic display. Then, when she got to her feet and actually danced as well, the audience went wild. A wonderful concert.

Following the electric Esperanza was always going to be a difficult act – and so it proved. Le Rhythm de la Parole – a musical conversation between 12 artists from Iran, Mali and Karnataka in Southern India, was interesting and exciting in parts, but it did not reach the same heady spaces claimed earlier by Esperanza.

Nahawa Doumbia from Mali melted the audience with a soft sweetness, a direct counterpoint to the pain of the Flamenco. However the performance really took off when Ali Reza Ghorbani began a song in Persian. His total immersion in the lyrics was evident from the first notes and his performance was the highlight of the second concert.

Coming up.

Tonight’s big concert at the Bab Makina features Za Ondekoza, the drummers from Tokyo.

All photographs copyright Suzanna Clarke 2006

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