"Arabian Nights" ballet to be staged in Russia

By Laman Ismayilova

The Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theater will premiere Fikrat Amirov's ballet "One Thousand and One Nights" on August 14-16. The ballet will open the 5th Mariinsky International Far East Festival.

"One Thousand and One Nights" is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the "Arabian Nights".

The work was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central and South Asia and North Africa.

It tells the story of Scheherazade, a Sassanid Queen, who tells a series of stories to her husband, King Shahryar in order to delay her execution. The stories are told over a period of one thousand and one nights. Every night Scheherazade ends the story with a suspenseful situation, forcing the King to keep her alive for another day.

The exciting story of Scheherazade laid the foundation of the ballet of the same name. "One Thousand and One Nights" is a ballet in two acts by Fikrat Amirov to a libretto by playwrights Magsud and Rustam Ibragimbayovs. The libretto is based on episodes from "One Thousand and One Nights".

The ballet was premiered in 1979 at the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theater.

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

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