Fes Festival 2017 ~ The Wrap

The 23rd Fes Festival of World Sacred Music took place between the 12th and 20th of May. This year's theme was "Water and the Sacred"

The festival under the artistic direction of Alain Weber, once again brought together an eclectic mix of music and performers. While no overall programme will be to everyone's taste, the mix this year offered something for everyone.

Artistic Director Alain Weber

While spectacular, opening night lacked the punch of the previous two years. As our reviewers wrote: "What the opening night lacked in excitement it made up for in colour, though at times it felt as though the splendid image mapping was upstaging merely incidental music. As usual, the sound and lighting were near perfect. However, with a lack of a strong narrative line, the production fell short of of the splendid opening at last year's festival." (see full review)

The splendid image mapping

For the rest of the festival attendance was good at most concerts, though the afternoon heat and lack of shade kept audience numbers small at the outdoor Jnan Sbil performances.

The presence of Chinese performers this year was a plus, with pipa player Lingling Yu being a particular favourite. Her virtuoso performance at Riad Dar Bensouda was, for many people unfamiliar with Chinese music, a revelation.

As reviewer Lynn Houmdi wrote: The dexterity of her interpretation, as she strummed, plucked, stroked and picked the pipa's five strings, occasionally banging the body as well, easily transported the audience across the seas and mountains.

Images of raging dynastic armies or snow falling on the pine-tree lined mountainsides of a classic pen and ink scene came readily to mind, while in other pieces the lute had more of a flamenco guitar or a Middle Eastern sound. For the first of a series of homages to the music and culture of China, we were given a rare treat tonight: an instrument so versatile in the hands of one so expert."

"An instrument so versatile in the hands of one so expert"

The other major contribution from China was the Zhejiang Wu Opera Troupe (浙江婺剧团), whose Legends of Water was presented at Bab Makina in partnership with the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China. While being a stunning spectacle, flawlessly performed, some in the audience found it challenging, particularly those not accustomed to the high tone style of Chinese Opera singing.

A flawless performance

The collaborations across cultural lines, such as Aziz Sahmaoui's Cuban Project, the Songhai collaboration and Violons Barbares, all worked particularly well. The Songhai Project was a musical experiment that began in London between Malian kora maestro Toumani Diabaté and flamenco musicians from the band Ketama in 1987. Here, in Fez, we were treated to a wonderful concert. As Toumani Diabaté put it, "A 30 year reunion - for nostalgia's sake!"

One of the characteristics of both the Fez and Essaouira summer festivals is their ability to bring artists together who would not normally collaborate. Sometimes this creates something new and amazing. Other times it seems as though the collaboration is less than the sum of its parts. The latter was sadly often the case this year, for example backing Vicente Amigo with a symphony orchestra. A maestro such as Amigo should be given space in his own right.  The orchestral second half was, in the words of an audience member, "...a low point that detracted from the overall evening".

Long-standing collaborations, rather than those with just a few rehearsals, work best. The "made for Fez" model doesn't seem to offer enough opportunity for artists to really build the rapport and relationships necessary for a convincing fusion of styles.

Eric Bibb - "The perfect combo"

The inclusion of blues legend Eric Bibb was a real plus. "Bibb has the perfect combo of skills: a true (slightly husky) blues voice and great guitar skills. His humble demeanour and shrugging off of stardom is not affected and is endearing. He is a man with a sense of the universal sacred and many of the songs, such as We Are All Connected, brought this to the fore." (full review here)

This year the Festival explored other artistic avenues beyond music and dance such as film, literature and combinations of those with music. These efforts worked to varying degrees but are certainly worth exploring in greater depth. The least successful was Arestes E S’Urtzu Pretistu ‒ Ancient rite of the village of Sorgono - an idea still, sadly, in search of a form. Being "authentic" or "worthy" is not enough to turn it into something suitable for a sacred music festival.

The Hamadcha - A force to be reckoned with!

The Hamadcha Sufi group's collaboration with Vincent Moon and Priscilla Telmon's Labyrinths showed the necessity of all the collaborator's producing equally strong material. In this case, the Hamadcha upstaged the film and probably saved the evening.

Amongst the regular festival patrons there is a feeling that each year the Festival moves further from its "Sacred" aspect and more towards yet another festival on the global summer circuit. This was characterised by the number of groups this year presenting their latest album, although the Songhai project - reunited after 30 years - was a notable exception.

Sadly, from a commercial and diversity perspective, the Festival organisation seems to be turning back towards being a Francophone club. English-language media were largely ignored and in some cases even excluded from covering the Festival; The View from Fez being a rare exception. Event introductions were seldom in any other language than French, despite an increasing Anglophone audience (not to mention an Arabophone one - not all Moroccans are fluent in French, after all). Welcome exceptions were the interpreters at the Forums, which were excellent this year. Violons Barbares and Aziz Sahmaoui both introduced their sets in a mixture of French, Darija and English - no mean feat for the violinists, considering the members are themselves French, Bulgarian and Mongolian. The appointment of a specific person to make sure the Festival's communication extends beyond French speakers in all aspects would be a definite improvement.

The Nights in the Medina concept is worth preserving. However, signage this year was not put up until halfway through the festival. The candle-lit pathways of other years, unfortunately did not return. The Dar Adiyel venue is far from large enough from an audience comfort and safety perspective.

Claire Zalamansky at Palais Amani

The addition of Palais Amani as a venue was a positive step. Their hosting of the talented Claire Zalamansky was a rare treat. More should be made of the Sidi Mohamed Ben Youssef Cultural Complex, which is under-utilised. It is also relatively easy for visitors to find. While the addition of smiling "meeters and greeters" at venues was a charming addition, these need to be better informed about how to direct patrons to venues. Helpfully, local people redirected more than a few visitors.

It seems that the Festival needs to sit down and actually work out what it is they are presenting and for whom. In addition, the relationship between the media and the Festival needs improvement. The narrow focus on Francophone print and television media does the event a disservice. These days, the impact of online and social media, in all languages, cannot afford to be ignored. Many visitors to Fez and the Festival will access their news about it in this form, and whatever helps to spread the word about this significant cultural event is worth encouraging.

A greater adherence of the Festival to its purported theme is needed to refresh the festival format. And an improved coherence from the outset between development of the theme, selection of artists and their repertoires and promotion of the Festival itself would make for a more satisfying audience experience.

The View From Fez coverage of the festival was by: Lynn Houmdi, Suzanna Clarke and Sandy McCutcheon

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The Cuban Project ~ Review

Aziz Sahmaoui carried the audience across the Atlantic and back on an Afro-Cuban heatwave for final concert at Jnane Sbil

Aziz Sahmaoui 
(Click on images to enlarge)

Aziz Sahmaoui's musical career seems to have been guided by a series of fortuitous encounters. His University of Gnaoua group was created in Paris through some chance encounters at the back of a cafe with African musicians of a similar philosophy: to explore the roots of Gnaoua from West Africa through Morocco. In turn, their meeting with Cuban musicians at the Havana World Music Festival led back across the Atlantic to the extraordinary concert witnessed in Fes this afternoon. And, if Sahmaoui's enthusiasm and gratitude at today's opportunity are anything to go by, the 23rd Fes Festival of Sacred Music was yet another link in a serendipitous chain of events.

Adhil Mirghani

But the pleasure was as much ours, the audience. Over almost two hours, Sahmaoui sang, played both guembri and oud and coordinated a trans-Atlantic jam of joy involving 6 musicians besides himself. On stage were no less than three drum kits (two standard ones and a set of congas) as well as a piano, electric guitar and bass guitar. The musicians, including piano protégé Harold Lopez-Nussa, were from Morocco, Cuba, France, Togo and Senegal. Their common thread, the five-beat tempo which hails from West Africa and travelled with Africa slaves up through the Sahara, across the ocean from Essaouira and elsewhere to the Caribbean island of Cuba.

Harold Lopez-Nussa

They began with a jazzy piano solo by Lopez-Nussa while the band got themselves into place. Then Sahmaoui kicked off a Gnaoua classic and from that moment on the audience was captivated. People clapped in time, then jumped up to dance and didn't sit down, despite the raging heat of the afternoon. In true Gnaoua style, Sahmaoui addressed the audience throughout this number and several from his most recent album, Mazal (2014), calling out to Fassis and lauding their city and the beautiful day. He also presented new material in Darija and Spanish, songs presumably composed specifically as part of the Cuban Project.

Carlitos Sarduy

By about 5 songs in, we were wondering when the Cuban sound was going to come from the background and into the fore. Then it did with a vengeance, as Carlitos Sarduy's Habanero trumpet rang out across the gardens. There they were, the five syncopated beats of Cuban salsa and Son, before the tone shifted to a kind of Rachid Taha-style Arab rock track. Then everyone left the stage except Sahmaoui and Lopez-Nussa and we were treated to a premiere of a new composition, Coquelicot, with the oud sounding as delicate as the guitar in Sting's Shape of My Heart. Then the group came back together for the Gnaoua Classic, La Ilaha ila Lah, which brought any folks still seated to their feet. The Gnaoua style of call and response continued in Sahmaoui's composition, Kahina, with the response being the name of an ex. rather than that of Allah or a Sufi Saint. The penultimate song was a Cuban Buena Vista classic, Mandinga, followed by a Gnaoua finale, by the end of which all seven band members were on percussion alone.

Amen Viana

From start to finish, the energy of Sahmaoui and his crew had the audience captivated. The collaboration between artists of different but intertwined traditions of the same original roots gave them - and us - a great deal of pleasure. The arrangements - bringing a Cuban piano into a Gnaoua favourite or the darbouka into a Cuban salsa track - were slick and entertaining. There is a whole lot more mileage in this fusion and one could imagine a deeper exploration of those common roots and a greater exposure of the Afro-Cuban sound in a future joint initiative. This was a fantastic conclusion to the Jnane Sbil series this year and a great example of how sacred music of different cultures can be brilliantly spun together to make something new and exciting.

Review and photographs: Lynn Houmdi

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Majida El Roumi ~ Review

"Music can speak out louder than words. I will use my music and my voice to speak out on behalf of the needy and undernourished everywhere"— Majida El Roumi

"I liked her thoughts and clarity of mind before loving her velvety voice, Majida EL Roumi, resembles me in depth as a rebel. She’s very promising; she feels and intelligently understands the word which is a rare quality. I believe Lebanon is in great need of her, and she will become Lebanon’s Ambassadress to all Lebanese and Arabs alike."  - poet Nizar Qabbani

Majida rehearsing this afternoon at Bab Al Makina

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Fes Festival Programme ~ Saturday 20

The final day of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music has some treats in store with music from Cuba all the way to Lebanon

Magida El Roumi 

16h30 – Jnan Sbil Garden ~ Aziz Sahmaoui – Cuban Project – Morocco/Cuba ` From the world of African Gnawa to the cult of the Orishas. With Harold Lopez-Nussa, piano

21h00 – Boujloud Square ~ free of charge ~ Cheb Rayan

21h00 – Bab Al Makina ~ Magida El Roumi – Lebanon

23h00 – Dar Tazi Sufi Nights ~ free of charge ~ Al Hadra Zaylachiya: Jamila Beni’aich - Assilah

Harold Lopez-Nussa

Festival Food Guide
Check out some of the many options for fine food at the Fes Festival: Food Guide

Full Festival Programme
See programme here

Updates
Stay up to date with Fes Festival news and venue changes during the festival by following The View From Fez on Twitter:  #theviewfromfez

Make sure to see our Festival wrap up on Sunday!

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Izlan ~ Songs of Moroccan Women ~ Review

From the mountains to the plains, from the desert to the sea, woman appeared as a benevolent goddess as she was made of the elements, she was the elements and all that embellished them in the eyes of men. But it was in spring that as the mountain streams came tumbling down, edged with brown foam and bordered by green tamarisk, a muffled drum of pebbles sounded and she flourished and became as ethereal as an antelope. She became conjoined with the rebirth of Nature.～ Mohammad Khair-Eddine (Moroccan writer fromTafraoute)

The formidable Chérifa 
(click on images to enlarge)

Izlan is an Amazigh (Berber) word meaning the art of verse. What the word does not convey is the energy and at times, sheer power of the performers. Tonight was a varied mix, which Festival Artistic Director Alain Weber described to The View from Fez as being "a little difficult to bring together". It was not clear if he was talking about the artists or the overall concept.

Certainly the performers covered a wide range of ages, backgrounds and geographic locations. Among them the formidable Chérifa, Raïssa Fatima Tabaamrant, Fatima Zohra Qortobi,  and a’yu singers – the sung ‘cry’ of Taounate in the Rif, the Roudaniat dancers of Taroudant in the Anti-Atlas, and Bab al Sahara, the guedra dance group from Guelmim.

Bab al Makina was packed

The Bab al Makina venue was packed for the performance which started with a narrator in French introducing the singers. As the audience was overwhelmingly Moroccan the use of French was understood by a majority of them. The anglophone contingent took it in good grace as an American couple told The View From Fez, "We don't understand a word of French, but the music spoke for itself".

The unnamed narrator was also a fine singer 

Raïssa Fatima Tabaamrant (real name is Fatima Shahu) is a great example of the strength of the Amazigh women. Back in 2012, as an Amazigh parliamentary deputy, she posed the first question in Tamazight in the history of the Moroccan parliament. Gutsy, yes, and she can sing. The audience loved her.

Raïssa Fatima Tabaamrant

There was obviously a "pecking order" as some singers were limited to a single song, while others sang two or three.  Some were backed by the small and highly competent orchestra, others by the group of Moroccans playing traditional instruments such as guembri and drums.

Along with the younger emerging artists, there were a couple of surprises. Two older singers (pictured below) were assisted onto the stage, and while the visitors in the audience had no idea who they were, the local Moroccans told us "everybody knows them" - however, when prompted to name them, simply returned to clapping and singing along. Raymonde el Bidaouia (Raymonde the Casablancan) and Haim Batbol were a surprise inclusion, but warmly welcomed by the audience.

Raymonde el Bidaouia - 75 and going strong

Haim Batbol - 82 years old and unstoppable 

The elderly man, Haim Batbol, at 82 appeared a little frail - until he got the microphone in his hand. He was obviously a Fassi favourite (he lives in the Mellah), as he knew exactly which hits to pull from the past and he never missed a beat as the crowd sang along.

Haim Botbol is one of the legends of popular Moroccan and Jewish-Moroccan music.began his career by creating his first group in Fes, in 1952, at the age of 16. Over the years he has become part of the history of popular Moroccan music, while mentoring hundreds of young musicians and singers. Star of Moroccan radio and television, Haim Botbol also performed for Moroccan families, at weddings, communions, and baptisms.

However, it was an odd interlude at a concert dedicated to Moroccan women.

For up and coming stars sit was a chance to show their talent

But the person most of the crowd had come to see was the woman from Khenifra - Chérifa Kersit. Also known as the "poetess of the Middle Atlas",  Chérifa sings in the emotional tamawayt style. She was born in the Middle Atlas Mountains and did not attend school. Her reputation singing at local weddings and village gatherings spread and in 1999 her career took on an international dimension when she sang at Peter Brook's famous Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris in a marathon event celebrating the women of Morocco.

Chérifa 

Chérifa was discovered by the great master and singer Rouicha and was part of her singing group for a long time. Chérifa can seem, at first, to be austere or even masculine. However, her career as a professional singer has given her another way of life, a status different from the usual one of traditional Moroccan women.

The evening's performance by Chérifa was limited by the small amount of time allotted to her. To experience her at full-power is exhilarating, but requires a complete concert.

Still, even with the short time on stage, Chérifa's sense of timing and her feel for poetry showed the audience the authentically Tamawayt tradition of the Amazigh songs of the Middle Atlas.

The emotional register alternated between rejoicing and suffering and spiritual reflection. From a restrained opening instrumental taqsime at the start of her performance, Chérifa's voice shattered the silence like a lightning bolt and, amid a frenzy of drumming, became the echo of the geography of the mountains of the Middle Atlas.

It was a good night at the Fes Festival, but left many wanting more.

I open my mouth to implore God,
not man who is not my creator,
Pillow, you are my witness:
even if I rest my head on you,
sleep never comes to my eyes.'
Tamawayt poem

Review and photographs: Sandy McCutcheon

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Barbaric Violins ~ Review

I love beautiful landscapes: sometimes they have the same effect on my soul as a well-handled bow has on a resounding violin. They create crazy feelings ~ Stendhal, Memories of a Tourist

I coincidentally shared a petit taxi with the manager of Violons Barbares, Jean-Hervé Vidal, the other night. He told me the group, based around the French city of Strasbourg, was "energetic and strong" on stage, and quite "rock and roll." He wasn't wrong. Not only were they a quite rock and roll, but also a bit punk, pretty folky, even a little bit techno. And a whole load of fun.

The Barbaric Violins, as they are known in English, are a three-piece band now two albums in to a successful international and inter-genre collaboration. And it's easy to see why: they clearly love what they do and have great fun doing it. First on stage was percussionist Fabien Guyot from France, who jammed a range of instruments from Asian-style cymbals and a singing bowl to a bunch of drums from various musical traditions. He built up the rhythm to a trancey techno beat and announced the arrival of Enkhjargal Dandarvaanchig, aka Epi, a morin khuur (horse head) violinist and throat singer from Mongolia, He was followed by Dimitar Gougov, the Bulgarian initiator of the project who plays the gadulka, a violin from the Balkans that has three finger chords and 11 resonating strings.

Enkhjargal Dandaryaanchig, aka Epi, the Mongolian and his morin khoor

As the trio galloped across the Mongolian Steppes, raced around the Balkans, hopped around Central Asia and played love songs from around the world, all contributed on vocals (regardless of the language), but it was Epi's that really stood out. From a deep bass tone to Mongolian throat singing to beautiful harmonies with his colleagues, his incredible voice was as important a contribution to the collective whole as his fiddle. As well as being umbilically connected as a group, each communicated specifically with the audience. Songs were introduced with jokes in French, Arabic and English, and spectators were strongly encouraged (with specific instructions) to get up and dance. For a couple of numbers, Gougov even jumped off the stage and wandered among the public, like a roving minstrel, to enable us to better appreciate his instrument and his skill.

Fabien Guyot, a French percussionist and expert in improvisation 

By the end, most of the audience were on their feet and the request for an encore was inevitable. We were offered "Saturday Yurt Fever," one of Epi's compositions. While the title owed a lot to the Bee Gees, the opening drum beat was equally in debt to Earl Palmer (rock and roll drummer for Eddie Cochrane and Little Richard) before it becoming a punk violin track reminiscent of The Clash (if only they'd played violins). With a scat rap by Guyot thrown into the mix. If Epi hadn't had to sit to play his fiddle, he would surely have pogoed across the stage!

Bulgarian Dimitar Gougov with his gadulka

This is the kind of cross-cultural genre-warping collaboration that the Fez Festival occasionally showcases very well. The Barbaric violins gave us solos which shone and teamwork which stunned. All three members were equally displaced out of their comfort zones and into a new space of truly creative collaboration. Their confidence in their individual and collective abilities created a relaxed and most of all fun and entertaining vibe that was infectious. Now that's what I call a fusion!

Review by Lynn Hamoudi
Photos by Sandy McCutcheon

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Fes Festival Programme - Friday 19th

Friday sees an afternoon of extraordinary violins and an evening of wonderful women's voices

16h30 – Jnan Sbil Garden - Barbaric Violins – Epic World-Folk – Bulgaria/Mongolia/France

Epi the Mongolian

18h00 – Dar Batha - Film: Le Matrouz - by Simon Elbaz and Annie Brunschwig
In the presence of the authors – In memory of Professor Haïm Zafrani
France – 2010 – 46 min – Language: French/Arabic

21h00 – Boujloud Square (free of charge)  Fnayer and Ahouzar

21h00 – Bab Al Makina - Izlan – Songs of Moroccan Women

23h00 – Dar Tazi Sufi Night (free of charge) - Naqshbandiyya Brotherhood: Fes

Festival Food Guide
Check out some of the many options for fine food at the Fes Festival: Food Guide

Full Festival Programme
See programme here

Updates
Stay up to date with Fes Festival news and venue changes during the festival by following The View From Fez on Twitter:  #theviewfromfez

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Vincente Amigo - Flamenco - Review

To borrow a phrase from a very different Spanish passion, the concert by flamenco virtuoso Vicente Amigo was a game of two halves.

Tonight's spectacle at Bab al Makina was almost sold out and the audience included flamenco fans from across the generations. It opened with a solo by Amigo, alone on the vast stage but commanding it completely with his presence. Much of the piece sounded improvised and audiences members shouted, gasped and clapped at his inventiveness.

Vincente Amigo

Amigo was joined on stage by a further guitarist, a flamenco vocalist and palmista and an exceptional percussionist. Together, they presented an hour of flamenco excellence. The music was occasionally jazzy, often lamenting and bluesy, and frequently spontaneous and improvised. The success of the performance lay in the constant communication between all four artists and the evident joy with which they played together to bring their craft to others. Their energy was reciprocated by the audience, with several groups joining in with the flamenco clapping.

For the second part of the show, Vicente and co. were joined by a symphony orchestra of over 25 members conducted by Aziz al Achhab, Director of the Festival dans la Ville for the Fes Sacred Music Festival. The orchestral pieces were very string-based and, rather than complementing the flamenco artists, the arrangement turned something that had been spontaneous and visceral into a blander, diluted version of itself. The whole thing ended up sounding like the soundtrack to a cheesy 1970s romantic film.

Neither did the Spaniards appear to enamoured with the attempted fusion. Although the capacity audience seemed to like the whole event and were on their feet at the end, this was perhaps another example of where too much fusion can be a bad thing. A full-length concert of the flamenco artists alone, in particular Vicente Amigo, would have done them better justice and would have been enabled the magic created in the first half to continue throughout.

The addition of the orchestra failed to impress

Review: Lynn Houmdi. Photographs: Suzanna Clarke. 

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"Beloved Ganges" ~ Review

Positioned beside the lake in the Jnane Sbil Gardens, as part of a festival themed on Water and the Sacred, a concert entitled "Beloved Ganges" seemed very appropriate

However, the premiere presented this afternoon was much more complex than simply an homage to the great Asian river or the related Hindu goddess, Ganga. As well as an element of classical Indian music, pieces inspired by 14th-16th century European music and texts were also presented, creating a kind of transcontinental medieval mashup

Pelva Naik

Samuel Cattiau (countertenor) and Quentin Dujardin (guitar) collaborate together as the Resonance Project, recreating and reinventing early musical scores and texts from the 12th-17th century. Cattiau has an unusually high and precise vocal range which, alongside Dujardin's guitar creates a sound which one might not necessarily expect from this era of music. So far, so inventive.

Quentin Dujardin

Once the Resonance Project was established, Cattiau came to know of Indian sacred texts contemporaneous with those he was working on in the European tradition. In particular, the Dhrupad genre, which is one of the oldest forms of Hindustani classical music and is mentioned in ancient and medieval Sanskrit texts. Dhrupad is the name for both the verse style of the poetry and the way in which it is sung, and it is frequently accompanied by the rudra veena, a stringed instrument said to have been created by the god Shiva.

Samuel Cattiau

This is where Pelva Naik came in. Having trained under several pre-eminent practitioners of both Dhrupad vocals and the rudra veena, she has played, practiced and taught throughout India and also abroad. On stage, she was accompanied by Sanjay Agle on the tambour pakhawaj drum.

Sanjay Agle

The Fes Festival offers a real opportunity for artists who would not necessarily normally collaborate to come together and create something new and exciting. The combining of musical styles from East and West had real potential. And the result was not unpleasant - how could listening to musicians at the peak of their careers in such a lovely sunny setting be anything but pleasurable? However, although Cattiau, Dujardin and Naik all took time to explain their motivations, the component pieces and their history in both French and English, their experiment seemed rather too music-geeky. Cattiau sang in Spanish, English or Latin and Naik responded in Hindi and although it was all beautiful, I would have preferred to have spent my afternoon listening to one or the other; the resulting sum was not greater than the parts.

Review and photographs: Lynn Houmdi
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Claire Zalamansky at Palais Amani - Review

The sea
Smiles far-off.
Spume teeth,
Sky lips.
~ Federico García Lorca, Ballad of the Salt Water

The voice of a woman, clear and strong, called from behind trees. Then onto the stage area stepped a bare-footed Claire Zalamansky. Her self assurance and emphatic, expressive gestures - including a raised fist - made it immediately apparent that here was someone to be reckoned with.

In the beautiful garden of the riad hotel Palais Amani, in the Fez Medina, Zalamansky opened by telling us about her mother, who came from a small village in Cordoba. She then launched into the first of a series of powerful songs which were laments, celebrations and stories of Spanish life, as told through the eyes of a woman. She spoke in French, and sang in Spanish.

Accompanied by Marie-Ange Wachter on the cello and Gilles Andrieux on a variety of instruments, Zalamansky's natural, strong and vibrant voice held the audience spellbound.

Drawing on the work Lorca and the Judeo-Spanish repetoire she has made her own, Zalamansky spoke and sang of dreams, disappointments, the cycle of life, love, betrayals and fate.

"I was sixteen years old. My love had the flavour of apples and lemons."

She told us of villages "full of death", and of a man who rode into the village, "irresistible; a sorcerer, like the devil". We heard of "love, the language of the night." And later, "love, love, love. How tiring."

At one stage Zalamansky donned a Spanish shawl, and raised the edges of it up so it evoked a black crow taking flight. Throughout her performance, her hand and arm movements and the sway of her hips were reminiscent of flamenco and other ancient Spanish traditions.

Born in Paris in 1967, she fell in love with Andalusian poet Federico Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding at the age of 12. After she became a singer, she discovered the Sephardic musical repertoire to which her singing voice and personal style is well suited.

The garden setting, with its echoes of Andalusia, and the singer's powerful, expressive style combined to make this concert more than the sum of its parts. Rather than simply a polite interpretation of an ancient tradition, Zalamansky's gutsy and engaging performance gave it new life by making it personal and bringing it into the present. By the enthusiastic response of the audience, they knew that they had witnessed something special.

Review and photographs: Suzanna Clarke

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