“Khayyam Opera” Opens

“Khayyam Opera”, which is the eight puppet opera by Aran Group, is written, designed and directed by Behrouz Gharibour, Iran Theater reported.

The opera portrays the life and ideas of the internationally-known Iranian astronomer, mathematician, philosopher and poet Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) who is considered one of the influential thinkers of the Middle Ages.

Khayyam is known in the West for his quatrains in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which were translated by Edward FitzGerald (1809-83).

The opera places high status on music to picture Khayyam. Its composer is Amir Behzad, who had written the previous operas of “Sa’adi” and “Leili and Majnoun” for the group.

Poems of Khayyam will be read during the opera in English, French, German and Kurdish.

Franoush Behzad is the conductor of the orchestra, Ali Pakdast, Maryam Eghbali, Ali Abolkheirian and Ghasem Rahmati are the assistants.

The planner and director of recording the music in London is Navid Nikbakht. Chorus includes Mohammad Motamedi, Eshagh Anvar, Vahid Taj, Raha Yousefi, Mahdi Emami, Mehrdad Nasehi, Hamed Faghihi, Mohammad Farzin Zolghadr, Shahou Andalibi, Payam Rezaei, Behrang Ajam, Hadi Feizabadi, Rahman Takdehghan, Roshanak Kaymanesh, Sara Zare’, Farbod Khanizadeh and Esmail Dadiyan.

Special thanks are extended to Eshagh Anvar for Persian traditional music and editing the texts.

Puppeteers are Maryam Eghbali, Ali Pakdast, Ali Abolkheirian, Marjan Ahmadi, Marzieh Sarmashghi, Mona Kianifar, Nasim Amirkhosrow, Honey Hosseini, Sarah Eghbal, Marzieh Naderi, Sahar Kazemi, Elham Ebadi, Maryam Rahmani, Mehrnoush Sadeghian, Samin Javadzadeh Zahedani, Roya Almasimehr, Sadaf Bigdeli, Sahel Safa, Haniyeh Kordkazemi, Mehrnoush Khaleghi, Zeinab Ashrafzadeh, Elham Vafaei, Solmaz Biglari and Solmaz Rahimzadeh.

Behrouz Gharibpour has designed set, lighting and puppets.