Opera in Beirut

Whoever saw Mr. Michel Touma, Commissioner of Tourism and Summering, this past month — joining his day to his night in activity, contacts, and the drawing up of plans — became certain that the tourist year has begun to yield its first fruits, and that in the Lebanese air there are glad tidings and the first heralds of good things...

And at the "UNESCO Theater" is the certain news: it opens the great artistic performances of this season on Saturday evening, March 19, under the patronage and in the presence of His Excellency the President of the Republic and his lady wife, and nearly two thousand souls...

It is beyond doubt a historic event, which Lebanon records for the first time since Lebanon has been Lebanon... Most of the members of the artistic troupe — 140 in number — were brought from the Teatro alla Scala of Milan, which stands in the very front rank of the theaters of the world, and part of the troupe's members from the Royal Theater of Rome. As for the conductor of the orchestra, he is the famous "Bellezza."

The vast crowds that frequented the UNESCO Theater during the last third of the month of March saw what mastery the troupe commanded in playing, singing, and dancing — which drew the audience into rapt listening and deep appreciation, despite their limited acquaintance with "the world of opera"; so much so that many of them saw, without exception, the entire theatrical series presented in succession: Aida, Madame Butterfly, La Bohème, La Traviata, and finally The Barber of Seville.

It is a novelty with which the Commission of Tourism and Summering has surprised us at the opening of its year, and word has reached our ears that further artistic surprises are coming, from "ballet" and elsewhere... Thank you, Mr. Touma!

• Does the reader know that in the United States there are 25 towns bearing the name of Lebanon?! As for why the Americans took a liking to this name — every town has a tale to tell, and perhaps the chief reason is the presence of cedar trees; this resemblance suggested the borrowing of the name Lebanon!

By way of preparation for the tourist year and for the emigrants' summer, the Commission of Tourism and Summering, in the person of its director, Mr. Michel Touma, addressed an invitation to the mayors of all these towns to spend the first half of last March in the Lebanese countryside as guests of the government. A full program was prepared for them, interspersed with excursions of discovery to the ancient sites and parties of acquaintance with the people, which made the finest of impressions upon the Americans.

And on the tenth of March these honored guests met, at the Alumni Club of the American University of Beirut, hundreds of governmental and civic personalities, at a great get-acquainted tea party given by "the Palestinian Arab Women's Union," presided over by Mrs. Wadi'a Khartabil. The American mayors thus mingled with the greatest possible number of the people and exchanged views on the most important questions of the hour — especially the question of the Arab refugees, that question whose facts still remain obscure and distorted in American public opinion.

• Mrs. Gladys and Mr. Muhammad Shuqayr were blessed, on the fifth of last March, with a baby boy whom they named "Riad" in honor of the leader Riad al-Solh. The delivery took place at the hospital of Dr. Georges Hanna, and sweet little Riad is the fourth after his siblings Alya, Ali, and Lamia. Everyone's joy at his arrival was great — our congratulations to Ali's father and mother, and our wishes for a life abounding in love and happiness.