Baku Marionette Theater to perform at Uzeyir Hajibeyli Int’l Music Festival
By Laman Ismayilova
Baku Marionette Theater will present Uzeyir Hajibeyli's "The Cloth Peddler" (Arshin Mal Alan) on September 23.
The show will be shown at the 10th Uzeyir Hajibeyli International Music Festival to be held in Baku on September 18-26.
Director and artist of the performance is Honored Art Worker Tarlan Gorchu.
The birthday of legendary composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli (September 18) is celebrated as National Music Day in Azerbaijan since 1995. The International Music Festival is organized yearly to honor creativity of the world-famous composer.
The 10th Uzeyir Hajibeyli International Music Festival will bring together the world-renowned musicians from Azerbaijan, Russia, the U.S., Turkey, Italy and Slovakia.
The event program is incredibly diverse and includes not only concerts of famous music groups, but also creative evenings, conferences and much more.
Born in 1885 in the heart of the ancient Azerbaijani Khanate of Karabakh - Shusha, Uzeyir Hajibeyli’s outstanding musical talent started a revolution in the Azerbaijani musical timeline. He was the very musician to introduce an extraordinary innovation in the nation's music culture, to constantly refresh it, and adjust to modern tastes. He was a founder of an opera genre not only in Azerbaijan, but the East and created the first Muslim opera in the Islamic world.
His unique synthesis of Oriental and Western music significantly promoted the classical music traditions in the East and opened a page of classical music patterns.
The unique composer was brave enough to explore blending two incompatibly different cultures at root and achieve an unprecedented synethesis.
History recognizes Hajibeyli as an innovator as well as the first to establish a professional music school and Orchestra for Traditional Folk Instruments, to compose the Muslim world’s first opera and operetta, to introduce a woman on stage, to write the country’s national anthem (which is the official anthem of Azerbaijan today), to be awarded the highest artistic title of the Soviet Union.
Through his music as well as work as a journalist, teacher, and translator, Hajibeyli played a vital role in the fight against illiteracy and helped usher in a cultural shift, launching a period of enlightenment that transcended Azerbaijan’s borders and reached many others in the Eurasia region.
"Arshin Mal Alan" or 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.
"Arshin Mal Alan" become one of the most well-known and dearly-loved stories among Azerbaijanis. The operetta has been successfully performed in a plethora of languages in over 60 countries of the world, including in U.S, Austria, France, China, Greece, India, Russia, and Turkey.
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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova
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