Lebanese artists brighten holiday season with music

With all the crises plaguing Lebanon, opera singers taking part at the Beirut Chants Festival are trying to uplift spirits through art. While artist Olga Bolun played the piano, the powerful voices of six Lebanese opera singers filled the air at a performance in St. Maroun Church on Saturday. This is the 14th edition of the annual festival which is held every year in December and takes place in historical churches around the small Mediterranean country. The festival runs for 23 days and is open to the public, offering the Lebanese a chance to escape the multiple crises in their country - even if only for a few hours. "The Beirut Chants initiative is here to prove that despite everything, culture and music will go on," said Lebanese soprano Mira Akiki after regaling the crowd with her singing. The holiday season in Lebanon is overshadowed by a devastating economic crisis this year. Lebanese are under enormous pressure as their country struggles with the unprecedented crisis, with inflation and unemployment soaring and more than 80% percent of its population plunged into poverty. The crisis that began in late 2019 and is rooted in years of mismanagement and corruption. Shortages of basic supplies, including fuel and medicine, and restrictions on bank withdrawals and transfers, particularly in foreign currency, have increased the desperation of the Lebanese in the once middle-class country.