2009 Jeux de la Francophonie players. Total Games medal count The 2009 Jeux de la Francophonie games closing ceremony took place in BIEL, downtown Beirut, on 7 September. The festivities were opened with a classical concert led by conductor Harout Fazlian, followed by a folkloric African music concert specially composed for the occasion. Eliya Francis and Cynthia Samaha interpreted Mozart's opera Bastien und Bastienne, and the following set by Canzone Napoletana was also interpreted by Francis. A large Zorba ring preceded the concert of the Lebanese pop artist Ragheb Alama accompanied by belly dancers. The festivities ended with an electronic music event by the Franco
The Parlour reviewer in "Opera" magazine dismissed the music as "feeble in content, too long, and mis-timed in its relation to the dramatic action". The BBC, broadcasting a recording made at the Odeon Theatre, Llandudno, in November of the same year, described the première as "highly successful", and said that the opera, despite being Williams' first, displays a "confident professionalism and the theatrical awareness". The Parlour The Parlour is the only opera by the Welsh composer Grace Williams; a comic opera in one act, it is based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant. Although written in 1961, it was not