Italian opera to be featured on Baku stage

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

Lovers of opera have a chance to see a masterpiece of Italian art on the Baku stage.

The famed opera "Manon Lescaut" by Giacomo Puccini will be staged at the Azerbaijan Opera and Ballet Theater.

The performance, scheduled for September 23 will be held as part of the 7th International Uzeyir Hajibeyli Musical Festival to be featured in the country between September 18 and 28.

At the premiere of the opera, the roles will be performed by People’s Artist Samir Jafarov (Chevalier des Grieux), Afag Abbasova (Manon Lescaut), Akram Poladov (Geronte), Anton Fershtandt (Lescaut), Aliahmad Ibrahimov (Edmondo) and Atash Garayev (Lamplighter).

The opera will be conducted by People’s Artist professor Javanshir Jafarov, the choirmaster is Sevil Hajiyeva, and the accompanists are Vafa Azizova and Roza Selimova.

Giacomo Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas are among the most frequently performed.

Manon Lescaut is an opera in four acts. The story is based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost.

The first performance of Manon Lescaut took place in the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1893. It was Puccini's third opera and his first great success.

Currently, the opera is in the repertoire of the best opera houses in the world and is included in the treasury of world opera.

Uzeir Hajibeyli was the very musician to introduce extraordinary innovations to Azerbaijani music.

Western and eastern styles were mixed in the works of Hajibeyli. He adapted elements of Azerbaijani folk music to classical European traditions.

Using this method, Hajibeyli wrote the first Azerbaijani opera "Leyli and Majnun" in 1908, based on the poem of the same name by Azerbaijani poet Fuzuli.

He was a founder of the opera genre not only in Azerbaijan, but in the East and created the first Muslim opera in the Islamic world.

Hajibeyli is also the founder of the Azerbaijani opera school.

The outstanding composer composed the score for the national anthem of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

Hajibeyli became the founder of a new genre of vocal chamber music – romance-gazelle – creating such works as "Without You" and "Sevgili Janan."