Art Garfunkel cancels his performance
Max Eid
The impact of the recent Israeli raid on life in Lebanon extended to the
cultural domain on Thursday when singer Art Garfunkel canceled his
performance here.
Hours later, Englebert Humperdink announced that he was canceling his St.
Valentine's Day concert for health reasons.
Garfunkel's announcement, which came just two days before the American
artist's almost sold-out Saturday night performance at the Forum de
Beyrouth, has left event organizers Buzz Productions scrambling to refund
ticket sales and calculate losses.
"It's a nightmare," Buzz Productions' Naji Baz said on Thursday just after
receiving a letter from Garfunkel's managers. In addition to having to
return 3,500 tickets and negotiate with lawyers and insurance companies
about costs, Baz said his direct losses were "a lot."
Garfunkel's letter states that coming to Lebanon would put his life and the
lives of members of his entourage "in danger and this would be ridiculous."
The letter also reported that reading newspapers, hearing the news on the
radio and seeing it on CNN, all led to the same conclusion: that Lebanon was
in a war-like situation, made more dramatic by the power shortages.
Baz believes the highly publicized quotes by Israeli Foreign Minister David
Levy were also a key factor.
Levy warned on Wednesday that Lebanese soil would "burn" if Katyusha rockets
hit Israel.
"This obviously made them change their minds," said Baz.
Although clearly frustrated and angry about having worked five months for
nothing, Baz said he could understand Garfunkel's decision.
"It takes a lot of time to put together a show like this," he said, clearly
irritated by the turn of events. "But I understand because it's difficult to
hear what he's been hearing every 10 minutes on the news and then have this
Lebanese promoter say 'no, no, it's cool'," said Baz. "It's my word versus
CNN's, or it's the sounds of CNN versus the sounds of silence," he added,
referring to the title of Simon and Garfunkel's anthem for a generation.
Baz said he had not personally spoken to Garfunkel, who was in the middle of
a major US tour, saying that the singer "was avoiding contact."
"I'm just sad to be a Lebanese promoter right now," said Baz, adding that he
was unsure of the status of four more events he had scheduled between now
and the summer.
"I've tried to contact them, but nobody is responding right now. This week,
Lebanon is a nightmare. Next week, it will be different."
Meanwhile, the American Embassy had no comment about Garfunkel's
cancellation. However, public affairs officer Anne O'Leary maintained that
the Embassy's own plans to bring the Apple Hill Chamber Players to perform
at the American University of Beirut next week had not changed.
"We're proceeding as planned," she confirmed on Thursday. "We haven't
considered canceling the performance."
Also on Thursday, RK & A Entertainment Developers received a letter
informing them that Englebert Humperdink would not be performing as
scheduled on Monday night.
Humperdink, who was to perform at Beirut Hall for St. Valentine's Day, was
taken by paramedics from JFK airport in New York, where he had been about to
board a flight to London, from where he was to catch another flight to
Beirut.
"I spoke to him personally and he told me he was in the middle of the
airport when he suffered severe pain and had to call for an ambulance," said
Elie Maroun, vice-president of RK & A. "I also spoke to his wife in London,
who confirmed that he was in the hospital and that she was very concerned."
Maroun rejected suggestions that there might be any other reason for the
British singer's cancellation.
"Englebert was here in 1997 and knows Lebanon," insisted Maroun. "He adores
his Lebanese fans."