ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the intersection of two musical-theatrical projects at a time of great strife in a young nation. Ziad Rahbani, son of Fairouz and Asi Rahbani, and nephew of Mansour Rahbani, began contributing to his parents’ musical and theatrical works in a significant way after Asi suffered from a severe stroke in 1972. While at first it appeared as if Ziad might be the key to repairing the damaged trinity, his work quickly revealed a contrary side that would become even more apparent after the start of the civil war in 1975. This chapter proposes that Ziad’s musical-theatrical works must be read both as a response to his parents’ theatrical oeuvre and to sociopolitical events in Lebanon and the region, two phenomena that, I have argued, are not unrelated. By looking at his project through this double lens, I hope to show that its significance exceeds the bounds of the stage on which it was executed.
