A Strange Day for the Serbians in Fez

For the group L'Ensemble Melodi from Serbia, the journey to Fez did not start well. somewhere in Brussels their baggage did a vanishing act. Under normal circumstances this can be devastating for any traveller but imagine if you are a performer and your baggage contained the costumes you intended to wear. Such was the fate of the Serbians.

Divna and L'Ensemble Melodi

However, with a burst of lateral thinking, and by crossing ecumenical frontiers, the Serbians realised they were not the only ones who liked to frock up and so headed to the Catholic Church in Fez. They emerged in splendid white robes of an approximate size to the ones they are used to.

Divna Ljubojevic's costume is more of a mystery. Either the baggage trolls had not stolen her luggage, or she found someone with a frock that fitted her amazingly. In any case by concert time she was squeezed into a red number that would have drawn attention in any part of the world.

Divna

Next was the question of noise. An announcement was made that the Serbians had asked for total quiet and stillness during their performance. No pesky photographers running around taking pics In fact all photographers were herded to the back of the crowd where massive telephoto equipment was employed. Worse was to come. Photographs could only be taken for twenty minutes. Why? As a sound technician explained before the performance began "They sing very quietly." Really? Or was it that didn't want too many photographs of Serbian Orthodox singers in Catholic clothes?

But then things turmed really strange. As Divna and L'Ensemble Melodi began, a women in the front of the audience had an "episode" that resulted in her moving in front of the audience waving. Then in the silence a metal book stand crashed to the zellij. Paper blew across the front of the stage and to cap it all off, a large branch snapped from a tree behind them and crashed to the ground.

However, our stalwart Serbians continued with beautiful vocals and were rewarded with very generous applause from an appreciative crowd. There was only one mystery left to explain. The programme notes listed Divna and two men and another woman. A quick check on stage however showed two extra men. Listening to thier fine singing we can assure you they were not baggage handlers from Belgium! We suspect they were simply missed from the programme.

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