En attendant Oum Kalthoum

In 1967, Oum Kalthoum gave a legendary concert at the Olympia in Paris. A patriotic symbol and icon of the Arab world, she who was nicknamed "The Fourth Pyramid of Egypt", "The Voice of the Arabs" or simply "The Lady", was more than a legendary singer. After Le Chant du père, Hatice Özer opens our listening by exploring a new avenue: that of the emotions produced by Oum Kalthoum's voice, which, song after song, shook up the intimate landscape of her audience. Shouts, interjections, fainting spells! Starting with the song الف ليله وليله "Alif Leila wa Leil" (Thousand and One Nights), a bravura piece that lasts between thirty minutes and an hour and a half, it's less a question of witnessing the history of a recital than of reliving, in the present, a singular experience of expectation - of those that preceded collective ecstasy.