Port of Beirut, after the August explosion -

Elizabeth Fitt / SIPA

Combining classical music and Lebanese songs, a concert was held Sunday evening in the gardens of a historic Beirut palace devastated by the explosion at the port, a tribute to the victims of the tragedy.

The concert, without an audience but broadcast live by local channels and on social networks, was the first to be held in the Lebanese capital since the explosion on August 4, which left more than 190 dead and 6,500 injured.

"To be able to mourn (...), it was important to have this moment of music, poems, words", explains to AFP the artistic director of the event, Jean-Louis Mainguy.

The organizers called on the Beirutis to light a candle at their window as a sign of solidarity.

The concert was held in the gardens of the Sursock-Cochrane Palace, an architectural gem of the 19th century, in one of the neighborhoods devastated by the blast.

#RecollectBeirut # بيروت_تتذكر


ITS TOMORROW at 6.30 pm


All Lebanese television channels will live broadcast this happening, an hour of remembrance through texts and music, a ceremony of peace and hope to honor the memory of our lost and loved.

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- Elie Sfeir (@ eliesfeir10) September 19, 2020

"Heal his wounds"

This choice "is not only symbolic at the level of national heritage but also symbolic, because of the stigmata of the explosion it carries", said Jean-Louis Mainguy, referring to an interior "largely devastated".

Some 250 choristers from all over Lebanon participated in the evening, accompanied by an orchestra of about thirty musicians, according to the cultural collective #RecollectBeirut, which organized the event.

The concert began with a cover of Fairouz's ode to the Lebanese capital “Li Beirut”.

Portraits of the victims, framed by candles, had been installed in the gardens, while their names were displayed by television channels as the orchestra and choristers alternated the Muslim call to prayer and "Amen" .

Also on the program, a “virtual participation” of several Lebanese artists, in particular the singer Tania Saleh.

The Franco-Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf told him, in a recording, "a prayer to heaven so that Lebanon can once again stand up, and raise its walls, and heal its wounds, that it knows how to overcome its distress, his pain and his depression ”.

The explosion devastated historic districts where palaces and buildings with typical Beirut architecture are nestled.

Before the explosion, the Sursock-Cochrane Palace was a real “museum”, says Georges Boustany, activist specializing in heritage preservation.

“There were objects that come from all over the world.

Italian canvases, Dutch tapestries, we speak of the 16th and 17th centuries (…), and all of this has suffered considerable damage.

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