More Committed to Portray True Khayyam's Character

The opera has been the biggest ever puppet shows by Aran Puppetry Theater Group so far. Its production took three years. The director tells the story of Khayyam, Iranian thinker, philosopher and poet, trying to remove misunderstanding surrounding his thoughts and life.

The opera portrays Khayyam at a time he had reached his philosophical and scientific maturity. Khayam, a moderate human, wanted to know the world away from prejudice. His poems influenced Europe and US for years and the opera tried to employ performers, reading his poems in English, French, German and Kurdish languages.

Mr Gharibpour talks about the puppet opera.

When have you mulled over making Khayyam puppet show? Is it a sequence to Sa’di, Hafiz and Mowlavi, which were performed by Aran Group in the past?

Yes. I had a plan to have five sequences on Iran’s renowned poems. I had Ferdowsi with Rostam and Sohrab when he starts crying for his hero. I can say it was Ferdowsi opera. After Ferdowsi’s “Rostam and Sohrab”, I worked on Mowlavi, Hafiz and Sa’di.  I performed an opera on Mohatasham Kashani, a lesser known poet, in the meantime. Now I direct Omar Khayyam to complete my list of five poets.

What are difficulties in portraying Khayyam?

The difficulty was that there is a mistaken approach toward Khayyam (in the society). This mistake happened throughout the history and after translation of his quatrains by Edward FitzGerald (1809-83). That translation made a misunderstanding that Khayyam was womanizer and alcohol drinker. That is why the western world was willing to read his poems. It is while Khayyam was a Muslim philosopher who reached the peak of the world though in literature and science. The opera shows his long 83 years old life was devoted in solving the scientific problems and he had also had a thorough knowledge of the holy Quran….

How was the process of production?

Close to 150 puppets are used in the opera. We have 12 stages. Every stage has different set designing to make the picture rich and diverse. It is the largest play we have ever worked. We have conducted more researches on the play. It is the result of three years of efforts. I hope audience will enjoy it.

Why did you use English, German and Kurdish in your opera?

Khayyam is a rare Iranian poet whose poems are translated in English 32 times and in Russian 35 times. It is translated in 40 languages. I wanted to say that the world is seeing Khayyam…  

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 FitzGerald.

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.

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.