Can old musical shows attract audiences nowadays, asks Sayed Mahmoud For three consecutive days in celebration of the feast, Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafi put on a puppet show of Al-Leila Al-Kabira (The Big Night). The musical was first presented in the 1960s by the Cairo Puppet Show Company, and has played annually ever since as part of the company's repertoire, which also includes other successful shows such as Abu Ali, and Homaret Shehabeddin. The Big Night has been carefully engraved in the living memory of all generations. Written by the legendary ammiya poet Salah Gaheen, the operetta was included in his third collection of poems, entitled Of Moon and Soil, published in 1961. The show depicts the rituals of the moulid (local religious festival), the Sufi atmosphere, mixed with a sense of freshness and the folkloric pulse of the daily rituals present in popular areas in the 1960s. The music was written by the distinguished Egyptian composer Sayed Mikkawi, who also composed Al - Mesaharati, a popular song in the popular culture of Egyptians, and it reveals a deep awareness of the musical characters of various areas in Egypt. It also reflects a profound ability to reflect on the distinguished voices at the time, such as Shafiq Galal, Shafiya Ahmed, and Mohamed Rushdi, each of whom played a part in the Egyptian popular scene: the belly dancer, the waiter, photographer, peasant, etc. The operetta was warmly received by the press, and came at a time when Egyptian radio was adopting a policy that fostered a good position for the popular arts and supporting the coalition of labourers and peasants and their vital role in the development of society. At that time, the operetta toured Egyptian governorates and small towns, achieving a peerless success that can only be understood within the context of the national policy of the 1960s. The question now is: can this magnificent show be accepted in isolation of our nostalgia for "the good old days"? Although the Genena Theatre was filled to capacity with an audience of varying ages and walks of life, one could not help noticing some bored faces among the younger members of the audience. This may have stemmed from the very small size of the puppets and the loud music, as well as their inability to understand some words which have vanished from present Arabic usage. The operetta was revived and modernised at the Opera House some years ago by the Cairo Opera Ballet Company with a new vision by Gamal Salama and under the direction of Abdel-Moneim Kamel. Which version will survive is a question that can be judged only by time. Walking the roads of creation
