In Lebanon, single-concert festival serenades empty Baalbek ruins

A philharmonic orchestra performed to spectator-free Roman ruins in east Lebanon Sunday, after a top summer festival downsized to a single concert in a year of economic meltdown and pandemic.

The Baalbek International Festival was instead beamed live on television and social media, in what its director called a message of “hope and resilience” amid ever-worsening daily woes.

The night kicked off with the Lebanese philharmonic orchestra and choir performing the national anthem.

For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

They are expected to play a mix of classical music and tunes by composers ranging from Lebanon’s Rahbani brothers to Beethoven.

The 150 musicians and chorists were scattered inside the Temple of Bacchus.

Festival director Nayla de Freige told AFP most artists were performing for free at the UNESCO-listed site.

The concert represents “a way of saying that Lebanon does not want to die. We have an extremely productive and creative art and culture sector,” she said.

“We want to send a message of civilization, hope and resilience.”

Lebanon is known for its summer music festivals, which have in past years drawn large crowds every night and attracted performers like Shakira, Sting and Andrea Bocelli.

Other festivals have not yet announced their plans for this year.

Maestro Harout Fazlian conducts rehearsals ahead of the Sound of Resilience concert inside the Temple of Bacchus at the historic site of Baalbek in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, on July 4, 2020. (AFP)

Lebanon has recorded just 1,873 cases of COVID-19 including 36 deaths.

But measures to stem the spread of the virus have exacerbated the country’s worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Since economic woes in the autumn sparked mass protests against a political class deemed irretrievably corrupt, tens of thousands have lost their jobs or part of their income, and prices have skyrocketed.

Banks have prevented depositors from withdrawing their dollar savings, while the local currency has lost more than 80 percent of its value to the greenback on the black market.