 | ||||||
| Music of Azerbaijan | ||||||
| General topics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genres | ||||||
| Specific forms | ||||||
| ||||||
| Media and performance | ||||||
| ||||||
| Nationalistic and patriotic songs | ||||||
|
Opera in Azerbaijan has a history dating back to the 19th century Russian Empire.
| | ||||||
| Music of Azerbaijan | ||||||
| General topics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genres | ||||||
| Specific forms | ||||||
| ||||||
| Media and performance | ||||||
| ||||||
| Nationalistic and patriotic songs | ||||||
|
Opera in Azerbaijan has a history dating back to the 19th century Russian Empire.
The emergence of opera and ballet in Azerbaijan is associated with the Imperial Russian period of Azerbaijani history when Azerbaijanis became exposed to European music traditions first-hand. [1] The very first documented performance of an opera in Baku took place in May 1889 when Alexey Verstovsky's opera Askold's grave was staged at a circus arena in Baku (on the site of the current Azerbaijan Carpet Museum building), accompanied by the folk choir of Dmitry Agrenev-Slavyanski.
In the early 1900s, opera troupes toured Baku on a yearly basis (except 1901 and 1913), featuring prominent singers of the time such as Natalia Ermolenko-Yuzhina and Antonina Nezhdanova.
The Opera Theater in Baku was built in 1911. [2]
The first opera by an Azerbaijani composer premiered three years earlier, in 1908.
Leyli and Majnun (1908) by Uzeyir Hajibeyov was the first creation in the opera genre not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the whole Muslim world. [3] It was followed by the operas Sheikh Sanan (1909), Rustam and Zohrab (1910), Shah Abbas and Khurshid Banu (1912), Asli and Karam (1912) and Harun and Leyla (1915) which were written, but never staged. [4] The Cloth Peddler musical comedy written in 1913 was Hajibeyov's most popular operetta. It is considered to be the most well-known work of Hajibeyov in the former Soviet Union. The Cloth Peddler was translated into Russian, Tatar, Chagatai, Persian and Turkish soon after its premiere in 1913. Later this operetta was translated into Polish, Bulgarian, Chinese, Arabic, French and other languages. [5]
In 1921, Hajibeyov became a member of a council for the development of Azerbaijani theaters and contributed to the improvement of stage arts of Azerbaijan. [6] In 1925, Hajibeyov merged Russian and Azerbaijani opera troupes in a single troupe and created the permanent company of the Opera and Ballet Theater of Azerbaijan. In 1932, Hajibeyov wrote Koroghlu , which was first staged in 1937. [7]
In 1935 Muslim Magomayev composed Nargiz (1935) and Reinhold Glière composed Shahsanam. [8] The success of these operas encouraged other composers to create operas. In the 1940s, operas such as Khosrow and Shirin by Niyazi, Vatan ("Motherland") by Jovdat Hajiyev and Gara Garayev, Nizami by Afrasiyab Badalbeyli and many other operas were written and staged. The opera Sevil written by Fikrat Amirov premiered in 1953 and a remake of this opera was staged in 1998. [9]
In 1972, Shafiga Akhundova was the first Azerbaijani female composer and the first such in the Muslim world to write an opera. [10] Ballets by foreign and classic composers also are frequently staged at the Azerbaijan Opera and Ballet Theater. Operas created by various Azerbaijani composers such as Akhundova (Galin Gayasi), Suleyman Alasgarov (Bahadur and Sona, Faded Flowers), Jahangir Jahangirov (Life of a Composer, Azad), Vasif Adigozalov (The Dead), Ramiz Mustafayev (Vagif), Zakir Baghirov (Aygun), Nazim Aliverdibeyov (Jirtdan) and others were staged throughout the modern history of Azerbaijani opera.
Prominent Azerbaijani opera singers include Bulbul, Shovkat Mammadova, Fatma Mukhtarova, Huseyngulu Sarabski, Hagigat Rzayeva, Rashid Behbudov, Rauf Atakishiyev, Franghiz Ahmadova, Muslim Magomayev, Lutfiyar Imanov, Fidan and Khuraman Gasimovas, Rubaba Muradova, and Zeynab Khanlarova. [11]
In 1908 (January, 12), the first mugham opera staged at the theater of Zeynalabdin Taghiyev was a great success. [12] Famous classic story and mugham were joined in this opera. Leyli and Majnun became the first mugham opera in Azerbaijan. Zulfugar Hajibayov Ashig Garib (1916) and Shah Ismayil by Muslum Magomayev (1916) are significant examples of this genre. This tradition was continued by composers in the second half of the 20th century. Shafiga Akhundova's Gəlin qayası (Bride rock) and Jahangir Jahangirov's Xanəndə taleyi (The fate of singer) are examples of operas by these composers. [13]
Operas composed by Azerbaijanis includes:
Uzeyir Hajibeyov:
Other prominent operas:
 |  |  | ||
| Dinara Aliyeva · Shovkat Mammadova · Fatma Mukhtarova | ||||
 |  |  | ||
| Ahmed Agdamski · Muslim Magomayev · Elchin Azizov | ||||
Uzeyir bey Abdulhuseyn oghlu Hajibeyov, known as Uzeyir Hajibeyov, was an Azerbaijani composer, conductor, publicist, playwright, and social figure. He is recognized as the father of Azerbaijani composed classical music and opera. Uzeyir Hajibeyov composed the music of the national anthem of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. He also composed the anthem used by Azerbaijan during the Soviet period. He was the first composer of an opera in the Islamic world. He composed that first oriental opera Leyli and Majnun in 1908 and since then Azerbaijani people have honored him for bringing to life the written masterpiece of the world literature.
Gara Abulfaz oghlu Garayev, also spelled as Qara Qarayev or Kara Karayev, was a prominent Soviet Azerbaijani composer. Garayev wrote nearly 110 musical pieces, including ballets, operas, symphonic and chamber pieces, solos for piano, cantatas, songs, and marches, and rose to prominence not only in Azerbaijan SSR, but also in the rest of the Soviet Union and worldwide.
Mugham or Mughamat is one of the many classical compositions from Azerbaijan, contrasting with tasnif and ashik.
Ahmad Jovdat Ismayil oglu Hajiyev was one of the major Azerbaijani composers of the Soviet period. He is remembered for his monumental orchestral works, having been the first Azerbaijani to compose a symphony (1936). He studied under Azerbaijan's Founder of Composed Music, Uzeyir Hajibeyov and under Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.
The Hajibeyov Baku Academy of Music is a music school in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was established in 1920 in Baku and was previously known as the Hajibeyov Azerbaijan State Conservatoire.
Huseyngulu Sarabski, born Hüseynqulu Malik oğlu Rzayev, was an Azerbaijani opera singer (tenor), composer, playwright, stage actor, theatre director, and musician (tar).
Zeynab Yahya qizi Khanlarova is a Soviet and Azerbaijani singer (soprano), People's Artist of the USSR (1980), Azerbaijan (1975), Armenia (1978).
Gulkhar Ibrahim qizi Hasanova was an Azerbaijani mugham opera singer.
Rustam Mammad oghlu Mustafayev was a painter, one of the creators of realist scenography in Azerbaijan.
Leyli and Majnun is an opera in four acts by Uzeyir Hajibeyov, to an Azerbaijani libretto written by the composer and his brother Jeyhun Hajibeyov. The opera was first performed in Baku in 1908.
Shafiga Akhundova was a prominent Azerbaijani composer, the first professional female author of an opera in the East and People’s Artist of Azerbaijan. Akhundova was born into a family of an eminent cultural figure Gulam Akhundov in Shaki in 1924. Gulam Bagir oglu Akhundov, who was a public servant and intellectual of his time, worked as the first secretary of Shaki between 1917 and 1920, while her mother was a housewife.
Azerbaijani classical music includes a range of musical styles rooted in the traditions of Western or European classical music that European settlers brought to the country from the 20th century and onwards.
Azerbaijani ballet is the training methods and aesthetic qualities seen in classical ballet in Azerbaijan.
Gulu Rustam oghlu Asgarov was an Azerbaijani mugham and opera singer, composer, khananda and pedagogue.
Yaver Kelenterli (1902–1979), née Yaver Ali gizi Zamanova, also spelled as Yavar Kalantarli, was an Azerbaijani Soviet khananda singer of mugham, an Azeri music genre. In 1939, she was celebrated with the title Honored Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR.
Zulfugar Huseyn oghlu Sariyev was an Azerbaijani opera singer, mugham performer, Honored Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR (1940).
Fuzuli Cantata is a cantata composed by the musician Jahangir Jahangirov in 1959, and premiered the same year at the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theater. The work uses verses from classic Azerbaijani poet Mohammad Fuzuli's ghazals and a poem by Rasul Rza dedicated to Fuzuli.