By: Dr. Eden Naby Frye
I just listened to the CD of Malek Rama Lakhuma (The
Handsome Prince) that was recently issued by Mesopotamian Night. This is the
first of a duo set from Mesopotamian Night 2012, a concert hall performance
held at the Center for Performing Arts in Mountain View, California. The date of the musical performance, Saturday
February 18, 2012, marks a turning point in the professionalism of Assyrian
cultural performance.
Listening to the CD, I can appreciate the music more even
than at the performance nearly a year ago because I am not as starry-eyed about
that spectacular visual experience. Even when the DVD of the performance is
released, hopefully soon, it will not have the magic of that performance on
stage when a cast of singers, dancers and a fine orchestra really gave us a
first class performance.
But the CD is of good quality with the mellow narration by
our Turlock based poet, the wonderfully cooperative Yosip Bet Yosip active in
promoting Assyrian poetry at the World Poetry Congress. Yosip Bet Yosip’s
narration is indeed an homage to the life of Hannibal Alkhas (1930-2010), the
scion of generations of Assyrian cultural activists. Known widely as a painter,
Alkhas’ poetry is less known outside his native Assyrian community simply
because few people outside our community know our language and poetry is an
artistic medium heavily dependent on language.
That is one of the reasons the Mesopotamian Night
performances are important for our cultural advancement: we can bridge from Assyrian neo-Aramaic
poetry to attract a wider audience through music. But first we have to
rediscover our poets: in this case the discovery of this Hannibal Alkhas poem,
Malik Rama Lakhuma is owing to the publication by Marcel Josephson of Alkhas’
unpublished poems, among which was this wonderful folkloric poem now so well
adapted to stage performance.
Discovering our poets and musicians is the subject of the
second disk in the set that is available so reasonably ($15.00). The series of
Assyrian songs by the poet Misha Ashoorian and composed by Vania David have
received modern interpretation and orchestration by Edwin Elieh and are sung by
five of our contemporary entertainers, including Salem Sefo. That the original author Misha and composer
Vania could be viewing the performance from the first row is a credit to the
organizers. Let us see more of our 20th
century recoverable poets’ works reinterpreted for contemporary audiences.
And by all means, let us see and hear from the lovely
Shamina Khangeldy and the rest of the talented cast of Malek Rama, especially
Fred Elieh.
The Naby Frye Assyrian Fund for Culture is pleased to have
been offered an opportunity to fund, in part, this CD.
No comments:
Post a Comment