Established 1961 13 Lifestyle Features Wednesday, May 12, 2021 Ramadan special for whirling dervishes, who perform for Before the outbreak of the Syrian audiences sipping coffee or smoking conflict in 2011, Mahmoud performed in shisha in cafes and restaurants after a several European countries, and even day of fasting. Almost every popular spot toured the United States. “We spent in the capital offers some form of dervish more time outside Syria than inside,” he performance to attract customers. “We said. Travel restrictions imposed on eagerly await the month of Ramadan to Syrians due to the conflict brought the share this ritual with people,” said family’s performances abroad to a halt, Mahmoud. “Whirling is for every time forcing them to keep up the tradition by and place, but it is even more spiritual performing at local events. “We have during Ramadan”. — AFP performed in restaurants and weddings,” Mahmoud said. Evening performances during Ramadan “are one of our last (From left) Sufi Dervish dancers hopes” to make a living, he added. Yasser, Anas, and Muayad Al- The holy month is a busy time of year A Sufi Dervish dancer of the Kharrat family Kharrat, members of the Kharrat dances at a courtyard in their house. family, dance at a restaurant. Sufi Dervish dancer Mahmoud Al-Kharrat (right), 34, dances with other members Sufi Dervish dancer Muayad Al-Kharrat, 28, dances at a restaurant. Three-year-old Sufi Dervish dancer Anas Al-Kharrat dances with his family mem- of his family at a courtyard in their house. bers at a restaurant. Marley’s condition worsened. He landed in Miami to seek emergency treatment. Forty years “Money can’t buy life,” he reportedly told his son Ziggy from his hospital bed before his death on May 11, 1981, forty on, Bob years to the day on Tuesday. The Wailers, reunited Learning of Marley’s death is a Marley’s rich moment seared into Mowatt’s con- sciousness. “It was a Monday morning, ilan’s legendary La Scala opera according to its management. Renowned “Macbeth”. Performed by the La Scala sitting on the veranda like I am now, and house erupted into huge applause for its exceptional acoustics and red velvet- Chorus, it was led by musical director legacy thrives I got the phone call that Bob passed,” Mon Monday to hail a stirring per- draped boxes, technicians have been busi- Riccardo Chailly. “We have recorded she said. “It was very painful. All the formance at its triumphant reopening after ly getting the ornate opera house ready to many concerts in streaming, but it was vir- years we have worked together has six months of silence imposed by the coro- reopen. tual, here it’s different, with the public it’s an come to a closure and it just hit me. navirus pandemic. The performance came intense moment of emotion that we share, t’s been four decades since Bob a day before the 75th anniversary of a his- ‘Magical’ as the final applause that we missed,” Marley’s death, a period longer than “Bob was gone forever.” Marley was given a state funeral in toric concert in 1946 that celebrated the To respect social distancing, the musi- Cardo said. Ithe reggae icon’s brief but potent life postwar reopening of La Scala which had cians took over the ground-floor seating Jamaica on May 21, 1981, that com- that skin cancer ended when he was 36. been bombed three years earlier and area, with the audience confined to the bal- ‘Tears of joy’ Yet Marley lives on as a voice of the dis- bined elements of Ethiopian Orthodox and Rastafari tradition. He was eulo- rebuilt. The musicians and performers conies. Only 500 spectators will be admit- Emotions were running high. “We have possessed, the palpable vibrancy, spirit were greeted by loud applause and volleys ted for each performance for the time all listened to recorded concerts from our of protest and moral zeal of his songs gized by former Prime Minister Edward Seaga and buried in a chapel near his of “Bravos!” from the small but enthusiastic being-a fraction of La Scala’s normal armchairs, but this has nothing to do with including “One Love,” “Redemption the emotion of live music, the quality and Song” and “I Shot The Sheriff” enduring birthplace, with his guitar. This year’s 40th anniversary of Marley’s death is beauty of natural sound,” said Dominique in a way few bodies of popular music Meyer, La Scala’s director since 2020. “I have ever done. His rich anthems of particularly poignant, as 2021 marked the death of the last surviving member of am sure that with the return of the specta- peace and struggle, hope and discon- tors to La Scala, there will be tears of joy,” tent, still reverberate globally and espe- the original Wailers, Bunny. “This is the first year that we are the Frenchman, who previously headed cially in his native Jamaica, a small the Vienna Opera for a decade, said. nation whose rich culture its most memorializing Bob’s transition anniver- sary from 1981 in the context of all three Making her La Scala debut on Monday famous son popularized on an interna- was 34-year-old Norwegian soprano Lise tional stage. Wailers leaving, Peter (Tosh) having left in 1987, and Bunny surviving them both Davidsen, delivering moving interpretations “It is said the brightest stars some- of arias from Wagner’s “Tannhaeuser”, times don’t burn as long and, in many for 40 years and 33 years respectively, transitioning here in 2021,” Maxine Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos” and ways, Bob Marley was our brightest star; Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades”. The he accomplished a lot in a short period Stowe, Bunny Wailer’s long-time manag- er, said. The Wailers “are now reunited concert ended with the famous chorus of of time,” said Judy Mowatt, an original slaves, “Va, pensiero”, from Verdi’s member of the influential I-Threes trio in another plane of existence,” Stowe said. The group in the 1960s helped “Nabucco”, the ode to freedom also sung whose vocals backed Marley. “Looking during Toscanini’s concert in 1946. back now, I believe in many ways, he transform reggae, with its heavy bass lines and drums, into a global phenome- was before his time,” Mowatt told AFP. ‘Signalling Italy’s revival’ “His words have been prophetic-he was non with untold impact. The genre-which emerged out of La Scala’s reopening was preceded by a man who believed everything he sung, A general view shows the Scala Opera House prior a rehearsal in Milan. — AFP Italian conductor Riccardo Muti leading the it wasn’t just lyrics and music.” Jamaica’s ska and rocksteady styles, also drawing from American jazz and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for the first blues-has influenced countless artists audience of 500 lucky music lovers. capacity of 2,000. “It was magical, the time in more than five months on Sunday ‘Money can’t buy life’ “It’s a huge emotion to be able to once return to the passion of the big premiere in the northern Italian city of Ravenna. And Marley was diagnosed with acral and inspired many new music styles including reggaeton, dub and dancehall. more breathe in the atmosphere that only evenings”, raved one of the opera-goers, Muti returns to La Scala on Tuesday for the lentiginous melanoma in 1977, which the public can give us,” said first violinist Pia Matteoni. The retired teacher, in black 75th anniversary. “La Scala has always was first discovered underneath a toe- The style is often championed as a music of the oppressed, with lyrics Laura Marzadori, smiling broadly. “I hope evening dress with a big pearl necklace, been a symbol for the Milanese and for nail when he suffered a foot injury play- this is a new beginning and that we won’t had shunned the concerts streamed online Italy, it is the second Italian brand in terms ing football. He opted against doctors’ addressing sociopolitical issues, impris- onment and inequality. “His voice was stop again after these sad months of during the lockdown, waiting instead for of reputation, behind Ferrari,” said Meyer, recommendations that he amputate his silence.” Bass clarinettist Stefano Cardo the big reopening. an economist by training. toe, a procedure that would have violat- an omnipresent cry in our electronic world, his sharp features, majestic locks called it “a double rebirth,” as conductor But with no intermission and the bars “Paradoxically, it is La Scala giving the ed his staunch Rastafarian faith. While Arturo Toscanini had opened La Scala closed, one sound that was missing was signal for the revival of an entire country, in New York in 1980 to perform two and prancing style a vivid etching on the landscape of our minds,” Seaga said after the war “and we are trying to revive it the usual clinking of champagne flutes. whereas at the beginning of the health cri- shows at Madison Square Garden, after the pandemic”. More than 122,000 Instead, guests were treated to hydro-alco- sis, it was said that culture was not an Marley collapsed during a Central Park during his eulogy. “Most people do not command recollection. Bob Marley was people have died during the pandemic in hol gel, as well as temperature checks and essential activity,” he added. Despite hav- jog. He was rushed to the hospital, Italy, which reopened its cinemas and the- masks. Cardo admitted to being “a little ing performed virtually, musicians and where doctors found the cancer had never seen. He was an experience which left an indelible, mystical imprint atres on April 26.