"Arabian Nights" to be staged in St. Petersburg

14 January 2021 12:17 (UTC+04:00)

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By Laman Ismayilova

Fikrat Amirov's "One Thousand and One Nights" will be presented in Russia.

The Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theater (Vladivostok) will stage the ballet as part of its tour to St. Petersburg scheduled for January 15-22.

The tour will open with the St. Petersburg premiere of "A Thousand and One Nights" based on the famous fairy tale.

Chief conductor and musical director of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater Ayyub Guliyev has been invited to conduct the ballet in St. Petersburg.

"One Thousand and One Nights" is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. Known in English as the "Arabian Nights", the work is about Scheherazade, a Sassanid Queen, who tells a series of stories to her husband, King Shahryar in order to delay her execution.

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 playwright Magsud and Rustam Ibrahimbayovs.

The ballet's new version was staged by chief choreographer of the Primorsky stage of the Mariinsky Theater Eldar Aliyev and presented at Film Festival at the 5th Mariinsky International Far East Festival in August.

More than 300 costumes with hand embroidery were made for the ballet show. Some of them were made at the workshop, while most part by experienced craftsmen in St. Petersburg.

Magnificent performance of ballet dancers left no one indifferent. The ballet was accompanied by the soloist of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, tar musician Ramin Azimov.

Azerbaijan's traditional music instruments - tar and naghara were presented to the theater on behalf of the national musicians.

The long-necked music instrument featured in the score of Fikrat Amirov. The eminent composer started his musical journey as a tar performer.

The idea to add tar performance came from Eldar Aliyev. Ramin Azimov, the soloist of the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theater, performed on tar during the premiere.

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