The Holland Festival 2010 opens on Tuesday, June 1 with a tribute to one of the greatest female singers of the twentieth century: Oum Kalthoum. Her music will be performed in the Royal Carre Theatre by the National Arabic Music Ensemble of the Cairo Opera, conducted by Selim Sahab. The soloist is Amal Maher, a young Egyptian singer who grew up - as did many previous generations - listening to the music of Oum Kalthoum, without doubt the most revered singer in the Arabic world. Her many nicknames include The Voice of Egypt and 'Kawkab al-Sharq', the Star of the East. One widely-publicized comment about her comes from the actor Omar Sharif: 'Every morning she is reborn in the hearts of 120 million people. In the Orient, a day without Oum Kalthoum would be a colourless one indeed.'
Oum Kalthoum (or Um Kulthoum; in French it is usually spelled Oum Kalsoum) was born in Tamay ez-Zahayra village in El Senbellawein in the Nile Delta. Her birthdate is controversial as birth registration was not enforced throughout the Arab world; it is given anywhere between December 31, 1898, or December 31, 1904, but many place the date at May 4, 1904. She was plagued throughout her life with health problems; in her last years health issues caused concerts to be regularly postponed. She continued, however, to make music whenever possible, even after fainting on stage during a concert in December 1972. The following year all her concert tours were cancelled but she made studio recordings of a new work. Her health declined sharply and she died on February 3, 1975 in Cairo.
Oum Kalthoum showed exceptional singing talent at a young age. As early as the 1920s she was one of Cairo's singing sensations, but her career took off in earnest in the 1930s, coinciding with an ambitious concert tour of the Middle East. She appeared throughout the region as well as in France and the United States, and from 1935 onward also acted in musical films. The 1940s and early 1950s were popularly called the Golden Age of Oum Kalthoum, but even today, three and a half decades after her death, her albums are still the best-selling music in the region. Her songs deal mostly with the universal themes of love, longing and loss. They are nothing short of epic in scale: a typical Oum Kalthoum concert consisted of the performance of two or three songs over a period of three to four hours. Kulthum's vocal style has been imitated by many, particularly the deep, full sound of her contralto register. But her immense range, silky suppleness and massive strength remains unparalleled. Her career, which lasted more than half a century, left an indelible mark on Arabic music.
The present tribute was premiered on July 2, 2009 as the opening concert of the Beitteddine Festival in Lebanon. It was attended by the then-prime minister Fouad Siniora and president Michel Suleiman, among other VIPs. Amal Maher has a challenging, even thankless, role of interpreting the music of Oum Kalthoum, and she does so with extraordinary verve. This Holland Festival performance marks the first production in the West.
Amal Maher is an Egyptian singer. She began her singing career at a young age, after she was brought in contact with musician and composer Ammar Al Shirayi. Amal Maher broke through to a wide audience when she recorded a song called
Argouk Oulli (Eih Beinak We Beinha) and an accompanying video clip with the help of her husband, Mohammed Dia’. The song was a huge success.
For some years now, she has been affiliated with the Opera of Cairo. With a nod to the legendary Oum Kalthoum, she is called ‘the new voice of Cairo’. The similarity between the two voices is indeed striking. She is seen as one of the most talented singers of her generation and the person pre-eminently qualified in terms of talent and capabilities to revive the heritage of Oum Kalthoum. During the Beiteddine Festival in Lebanon in 2009, she sang the main role in a celebrated programme in honour of Oum Kalthoum, accompanied by Selim Sahab’s Orchestra, who also is affiliated with the Opera of Cairo. The core of her repertoire consists of music from the rich Arabic cultural heritage, like the work of Oum Kalthoum. However, nowadays Amal Maher also sings songs she writes herself. She has appeared countless times in television series and at festivals, where she invariably draws huge crowds.
Conductor
Selim Sahab is the artistic director of the Opera of Cairo. He was born in 1941 in Palestine but now has Egyptian citizenship. He earned his bachelor's degree in choir directing at the Jnesen Institute in 1974 and his degree in symphony orchestra conducting at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow in 1976. In Lebanon in 1980, he founded the Beirut Arab Music Ensemble. The ensemble performed in Damascus, Amman, Tunis, Paris and London, among other places. From 1980 to 1988, he was director of the choir of the American University of Beirut, and in 1987 and 1988, he taught music notation, music skills and music theory at the same university. Subsequently, until 1990, he taught the history and theory of Arab music at the Higher Institute for Arab Music in Cairo. During the same period, he and Ratiba El-Hefny cofounded the National Orchestra for Arab Music of the Opera of Cairo. Only forty days after its founding, the orchestra won the gold medal during the Babel International Music Festival, in 1989. The orchestra performed during the Carthage Festival in Tunis and on the National Independence Day of Kuwait in March 1990. During the Beiteddine Festival in Beirut in 2009, Sahab conducted his orchestra during a programme in honour of Oum Kalthoum in front of a cheering audience. He is also founder of the Children's Choir of the Opera of Cairo, which has 200 children in its ranks; he also supports Arab music in other ways, for instance through a talent programme and by organizing seminars and conferences to increase awareness of this cultural heritage amongst the public.