Ziad Rahbani, revolutionary Lebanese composer and playwright, dies at 69
He had long suffered from health problems. Tributes poured in for the enfant terrible of Lebanese music -- a musician, composer and theatre producer who made a huge mark on generations of Lebanese with his theatre pieces and songs, which many know by heart. Rebellious and visionary, his work evoked Lebanon's civil war even before it erupted in 1975, later reflecting the eventual conflict itself and the harsh realities of economic crisis.
Lebanese artist Ziad Rahbani performs during a concert at al-Manara theatre, in Cairo on November 30, 2018.
Lebanese composer Ziad Rahbani is pictured during rehearsals in Cairo for a concert at Al-Manara theatre on November 29, 2018.
Lebanese musician and composer Ziad Rahbani performs a concert entitled 'For Gaza' in the southern Lebanese port-city of Sidon on October 9, 2014.
Lebanese composer Ziad Rahbani gestures during his concert at Damascus Citadel in the Syrian capital, late July 15, 2009.
This picture from the mid-60s shows Lebanese musician Ziad Rahbani playing the piano, the instrument that has shaped most of his compositions since his first ventures in the early 1970s.
Rare picture from the early 60s shows Lebanese musician Ziad Rahbani playing music.
One of his most famous theatre pieces, the 1980 production 'Film Ameriki Tawil' (The American Motion Picture), was a satirical depiction of Lebanon during the civil war, set in an asylum with characters who represented facets of society. Ziad Rahbani was the son of Arab musical icon Fairuz, who turned 90 last year, and the late Lebanese composer Assi Rahbani who along with his brother Mansour modernized Arab music by blending Western, Russian and Latin American sounds with Eastern rhythms.
Already adored by older generations, Fairuz became a youth idol when her son began composing jazz-influenced songs for her, calling it 'Oriental jazz'. While Fairuz transcended Lebanon's deep sectarian divides, her son was fiercely left-wing and secular, and spent his life decrying the divisions that ruined his country. 'I feel like everything has gone. I feel like Lebanon has become empty,' Lebanese actress Carmen Lebbos, his former partner, wrote on X.
Lebanese artist Ziad Rahbani performs at the Beiteddine Palace in Lebanon's Chouf moutains, south of the capital Beirut, during the Beiteddine International Art Festival on July 12, 2018.
Lebanese musician and actor Ziad Rahbani performs during the shooting of lebanese director Randa Shahal's new film 'Tayara min Waraq' in Bekaa Valley, east of Beirut, 22 October 2001.
Lebanese musician Ziad Rahbani (right), son of Fairuz, and Armenian conductor Karen Durgaryan attend a rehearsal on July 25, 2001 at Beiteddine in the Chouf region of Lebanon, two days before the three concerts of Fairuz at the annual festival.
Lebanese musician and actor Ziad Rahbani performs during the shooting of lebanese director Randa Shahal's new film 'Tayara min Waraq' in Bekaa Valley, east of Beirut, 22 October 2001.
Leading Lebanese composer and actor Ziad Rahbani plays the role of a policeman in one of his musicals in the mid-90s in Beirut.
Lebanese composer and playwright Ziad Rahbani performs during the opening of the 55th session of the International Hammamet Festival at the theater of Hammamet on August 02, 2019.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement that Rahbani was 'a voice that rebelled against injustice, an honest mirror for the oppressed and marginalised'. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that 'Lebanon has lost an exceptional artist and creative, a free voice who stayed faithful to the values of justice and dignity' and who said 'what many don't dare to say'. Culture Minister Ghassan Salame wrote on X that 'we dreaded this day as we knew his health was worsening and that his desire for treatment was dwindling'.--AFP
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