Azerbaijani operetta Cloth Peddler to premiere in Los Angeles
By Nigar Orujova
The globally renowned Azerbaijani musical comedy and operetta "Arshin Mal Alan" ("The Cloth Peddler") will be performed in Los Angeles on September 7, the Azerbaijan's Consulate General in Los Angeles reports.
The one-night performance is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the operetta and organized by the Consulate General, sponsored by the Azerbaijan State Oil Company (SOCAR).
It is the first time that this unique musical comedy will be performed at such a scale and form in the United States and in the English-speaking world overall.
The performance will take place in the Music Center's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which is one of the largest and most renowned opera houses of the world. Besides being home to the eminent Los Angeles Opera, the Pavilion is also famous for hosting Oscar Awards ceremonies in 1970-90s.
Produced by award-winning American producer Michael Schnack, the musical commedy will be performed by outstanding American opera singers, who will be singing in original Azerbaijani, with projected English translations, and speaking in English.
A Los Angeles-based orchestra of exquisite musicians will play the music.
Arshin Mal Alan is one of the most well-known and dearly-loved stories among Azerbaijanis.
The operetta was composed and staged by the founder of Azerbaijani opera and classical music composer and playwright Uzeyir Hajibeyli in 1913 in the Azerbaijani capital Baku. The comedy with amazing music and breathtaking plot is considered to be the first operetta in the entire Muslim world.
Over the last 100 years, the operetta has been successfully performed in a plethora of languages in over 60 countries of the world, including in Austria, France, China, Greece, India, Russia, and Turkey.
Schnack was also the producer of the same operetta staged in Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Austria, in 2006, to a great acclaim.
According to Schnack, the U.S. is a young country, and Americans have a different approach to tradition, especially in an artistic sense.
"Azerbaijan and other countries with centuries of tradition -- often passed down specifically through imitation of master artists -- view traditional works as nearly sacrosanct. Americans expect each generation to interpret traditional works in new, original ways. Both approaches stem from a feeling of reverence, of cherishing works of the past, but the expressions are totally different. My team and I have approached "Arshin mal alan" with great respect, but our artistic goal is to show the audience how we -- as contemporary Americans -- react to and interact with this great piece of art, interpreting it through the lens of our experiences."
Schnack is honored to be involved in this project. "I directed the performances of the piece in Vienna several years ago, and it is a wonderful experience to return to the piece again with a totally different conception," he said.
"In Vienna we had a very mixed international cast. Here in L.A., we are all Americans, which gives the piece a certain continuity. We are incorporating more dancing this time, which makes several scenes much more poetic and emotional. Also, the piece has a totally different feeling in English than it had in German -- it is less formal, and the dialogues are funnier," he believes.