Mother also worked directly with children on a musical show.
Durant son séjour à Laghouat (Algérie), de 2014 à 2016, Mother a collaboré avec Amar Firah pour la création d’une opérette pour enfant que ce dernier a composée, à l’exception de la chanson finale qu’il a demandé à Mother de composer et d’interpréter. Amar Fira is a music teacher in the city of Djelfa and animates with passion multiple musical projects for the children of the city.
MEETING WITH AMAR FIRAH
May 2014 – Mother has been living in Algeria for 1 year, in Laghouat, working with a group of musicians from the city. They leave the stage after having given a concert at the Regional Institute of Musical Training (IRFM) of the city. A man approaches her and asks her if she would write a song for a children’s operetta he is putting together.
This man is Amar Fira, musician, excellent Oud (lute) player and music teacher in the city of Djelfa, located 100 km north of Laghouat. He is very involved with the youth of the city and is in charge of the music in the Youth Centre. His work is long term and he is very much appreciated by the children, with whom he regularly sets up remarkable projects. The Ministry of Culture commissioned him to create a show with children on the occasion of the International Colloquium for the Rights of the Child to be held in Algiers in May 2015. The show will take the form of an operetta, which he has just finished composing.
Friend of the brother-in-law of the violinist of the group, he came to discover the group Mother in concert and was so touched by the music that he spontaneously proposed to Mother after the concert.
THE OPERETTA
The operetta is entitled “Birds dazzled by the rain”. It tells the story of a little boy who plays the violin and whose adventures and encounters will lead him through the various ills and sufferings that affect children around the world. He will eventually triumph over these difficulties until the final song, during which Mother plays an Angel who appears on stage to perform with the children of the troupe the song she has composed, and which delivers a message of hope and brotherhood for all the children of the Earth.
The children rehearse diligently for many months. The various sketches are performed live, but the actors do not speak: the text is recited in 3 languages by 3 children narrators during the play. The musical passages must be recorded beforehand in the studio, as they will be broadcast in playback during the performances.
THE ADVENTURE BEGINS…
After working on the song, Mother and her musicians joined the troupe (Amar Firah and 12 children who had come from Djelfa for the day) at Aïssa Moulai’s recording studio in Laghouat to record the soundtrack of the show.
Over the past few years, Aïssa has significantly expanded her studio, but at that time it was really tiny to accommodate so many people! But it doesn’t matter: the enthusiasm and the seriousness are there…
One anecdote among many from this epic day: the 3 children who recited the text of the play in each language also had to record their part in the studio. When it was the young boy’s turn to recite in English: Mother’s consternation… The translation from Arabic to English had been summarily done by an unorthodox translator: Google… and without proofreading! In short, some sentences did not mean anything. On a corner of the table, Mother rewrote the entire English version of the operetta in a very short time, and the young boy immediately practiced pronouncing it. He managed the feat of learning it on the spot and recording it at the end of the day!
PERFORMANCES
The dress rehearsal takes place in Djelfa: it is of great quality and it is a magnificent gift for the inhabitants and the parents.
Then, the operetta will be played in Bouzareah, Laghouat, Constantine and again in Djelfa, in several national cultural programs in Algeria:
- May 5, 2014 at the University of Languages of Bouzareah for the International Conference on Children’s Rights, on the occasion of Peace Day,
- March 14, 2015 in Laghouat for the International Mathematics Day,
- March 14, 2015 in Laghouat for the International Day of Mathematics,February 22, 2016 in Constantine, Capital of Culture of the Arab World for 2016,
- March 16, 2016 in Djelfa during the visit of the Minister of Culture.
Finally, let us salute the tour de force realized by Amar Firah for the setting up of this operetta. In addition to his talents as a musician and composer, which can be felt throughout the work, which is of remarkable unity and beauty, we must emphasize his remarkable qualities as a teacher, in order to involve all the children in the project to such a degree.
But where we touch on the superhuman is in his organizational skills! Let all the lovers of Algeria imagine the daily challenge that this represents:
- To organize the travel of 12 children + the musicians in several wilayas of the country (knowing that most of the time only 1 night was taken care of, that meant: departure at 4 am from Djelfa, travel, installation, representation, night in the hotel, return at the first hour to find the parents…)
- To get the permission of all the parents to let their dear little ones go on such an adventure…
- To manage the headache of accommodation,
- Without forgetting to take care of the little ones: tying shoes, consoling…
Amar Firah has undoubtedly the sacred fire to give the best for the children. It was a great pleasure to meet someone of such high moral value and to collaborate with him on this project.
