Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

Baku Music Academy named after Uzeyir Hajibayli will launch a brand new project on January 16, Trend Life reported.

Entitled #BakuOperArt, the music project is aimed at promoting opera in Azerbaijan.

Opera is a total art form uniting music, singing, drama, poetry, plastic arts and sometimes dance. In each work, all the components of opera combine their expressiveness and their beauty. This complex alchemy makes an opera performance an extraordinary show, monopolising the sight, hearing, imagination and sensibility of the audience, where all human passions are at work.

The concerts of the Opera Studio, directed by People's Artist of Azerbaijan, Professor Fakhraddin Karimov, are always full of delightful and bracing surprises for even the most experienced listener.

This time, the fascinating concert will feature music pieces from operas that rarely sound in Baku. Most of them will be presented for the first time.

Faust, opera in five acts by French composer Charles Gounod to French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, which has not been sounded in Baku more than 40 years, will be performed. The of soloists include honored artists Farida Mammadova, Sabina Asadova, Farid Aliyev, Anton Ferstand, Adil Akhundov and others.

Opera in Azerbaijan has a history dating back to the 19th century. The Opera Theater in Baku was built in 1911.

The "Leyli and Majnun" by Uzeyir Hajibeyov was the first creation in the opera genre not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the whole Muslim world. The beautiful love story that premiered in 1908, was set to poetic verses by the 12th century poet Nizami and later by 16th century poet Fuzuli.

"The Cloth Peddler" was the latest and one of the most popular operettas of the eminent composer. The comedic and romantic operetta premiered in Azerbaijan in 1913, thus becoming the first operetta in the entire Muslim world.

Shafiga Akhundova was the first Azerbaijani female composer and the first such in the Muslim world to write an opera.

In 1972, Akhundova composed her first opera, "Galin gayasi" (Bride's Rock), and became the first female composer in the East. This opera's combination of the classical music with the oral traditional classical mugham confirms the preservation of the composing style of Uzeyir Hajibeyov and shows her unique talent and musical skill.

Prominent Azerbaijani opera singers include Bulbul, Shovkat Mammadova, Fatma Mukhtarova, Huseyngulu Sarabski, Hagigat Rzayeva, Rashid Behbudov, Rauf Atakishiyev, Franghiz Ahmadova, Muslim Magomayev, Lutfiyar Imanov, Fidan and Khuraman Gasimovas, Rubaba Muradova, and Zeynab Khanlarova.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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