Jarre and the curse of Pharaohs

Fog Halts Play

Cairo 

03/01/2000 - 

Jean-Michel's millennial mega-show "Les douze rêves du soleil" (The Twelve Dreams of the Sun) turned out to have been rather inappropriately titled. The French star's show, planned to take place at the foot of the Great Pyramids on 31st December 1999, was struck by the curse of the Pharaohs - or maybe the Egyptian Sun God Râ was offended by Jarre's presumptuous title? Who knows? All we can say for sure is that a mysterious fog descended from the skies before midnight - a fog the like of which Cairo's inhabitants had never seen before!

The Gizah plain was covered in a thick blanket of what appeared to be London smog, which even the most powerful of laser beams had difficulty piercing. This meteorological contretemps made it impossible for Jarre to use the pyramids of Kheops and Khephren as a backdrop for his show as planned and the French star's sound-and-light extravaganza was dramatically restaged at the last minute in front of the smaller pyramid of Mycherynos (a pygmy of a pyramid compared to its neighbours which are over 130 metre high!) Unfortunately, this rather spoilt the planned climax of Jarre's "electronic opera" which was supposed to have culminated in front of the Wonders of the Ancient World.

With Jarre's laser extravaganza struggling against the elements, the "Pharaonic show" had to rely heavily on sound. But the French star's ambitious mix of traditional instruments and synthesisers, Eastern and Western genres, only appeared to impress truly committed fans in the audience. Other members of the audience looked on in bemusement or indifference as Jarre ran through a medley of his old hits, extracts from his new album "Métamorphoses" (due out in February 2000) and original compositions which he alternated with 40s hits by the legendary Egyptian diva Oum Kalsoum.

When the tens of thousands of Egyptian teenagers (who had paid 15 dollars apiece to stand outside in the cold!) heard the dulcet tones of Kalsoum cheers of joy rang out on the midnight air. Up until this point most of the audience had been overawed by Jarre's laser light show, but significantly less impressed by the show's musical content. Frankly, Egyptian youth seemed to be having a hard time getting into the concept of the sun "dreaming of time, eternity memory, space, purity and innocence". And even the Egyptian-born "world music" star Natacha Atlas had failed to get the audience into the festive spirit.

As for the millions of Egyptian viewers who tuned in to watch the "most stunning show of the century" - according to Christian Bourret, the show's director - on television at home, they ended up rather disappointed. (Although it must be said that the Egyptian production team in charge of the live broadcast failed to provide adequate sound and picture quality). No wonder tens of thousands of viewers reached for the remote control and zapped channels to watch live broadcasts of other Millennium celebrations around the world instead. Such reactions will no doubt rekindle the controversy which has raged around Jarre's show from the word go.

The French star's sound-and-light extravaganza has already been heavily criticised by Egyptian journalists, intellectuals and even some MPs (who co-financed the show) as being an extravagant waste of money. With production costs coming in at 57 million francs, "Les douze rêves du Soleil" certainly worked out a lot more expensive than Verdi's opera "Aïda", which was commissioned for the inauguration of the Suez Canal 130 years ago.

But it was not just the cost of Jarre's show which many Egyptians found shocking. Criticism also came from religious quarters, Muslims complaining that the concert was staged during Ramadan (the holy month of fasting when the faithful are meant to spend their time meditating on the futility of earthly vanities!) The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia even went so far as to ban Saudi Muslims from organising any kind of ceremony to celebrate the Third Millennium "in the company of infidels". Likewise, the overwhelming majority of Egyptians consider the year 2000 to be a festival for "khawagas" (foreigners). Muslims, who account for more than 90% of the Egyptian population, currently consider themselves to be in the year 1420 of Hegira while Copts, who make up over 90% of Egypt's Christian population, believe they are in the year of grace 1716. (The Coptic calendar beginning in 283 with the death of the first Egyptian martyrs).

Jarre's millennial mega-show was greatly appreciated by Cairo's high society however, not to mention thousands of tourists who had travelled to Egypt specially for the celebrations. And let's not forget, "Les douze rêves du soleil" was largely organised on their behalf. For one of the main reasons behind the staging of the sound-and-light extravaganza at the Pyramids was to wipe out memories of the tragic massacre of some 60 tourists in Luxor in November 1997. The only thing which remains to be seen now is whether the next millennium will see the much hoped-for return of Egypt's tourist trade.

Alexandre Buccianti