SYMBOL OF IMMORTALITY

Opera, created by mo-dern masters of music, is one of the most significant attributes of the arts of civilized countries: The Grand Opera in Paris, the Royal Opera Theatre, Covent Garden in London, La Scala in Italy, The Metropolitan Opera in New York and The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow are regarded as famous centres of world music and theatre art. The theatres listed above belong to the Christian world. In Muslim countries, the first opera theatre was built in Cairo in 1871. In order to mark the commissioning of the Suez Canal (1869), the theatre season was opened by Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida" which was requested from the composer by Egypt's Turkish ruler, Ismail Pasha. The theatre is called Opera.

Good grounds

The pride of our nation, the first national opera from a Muslim country - "Leyli and Majnun" - was staged in Azerbaijan 37 years later - on 12 January 1908. The 11th edition of the newspaper Novaya Zhizn reported on 14 January 1908: "On 12 January, the drama group of the Nicat society showed the story "Leyli and Majnun" by Molla Muhammad Baghdadi Fizuli, which was staged as an opera by the Hacibayov brothers. The Hacibayov brothers deserve praise and thanks for their work and initiative."

These brothers were Uzeyir and Ceyhun Hacibayli. For your information, Ceyhun Abdulhuseyn oglu (1891-1962) was Uzeyir's brother. He received his secondary education in schools in Susa and Baku, and then studied at the faculty of law at St Petersburg University. He continued his education at the Paris School of Technical Sciences at the Sorbonne. In 1919, he participated in the Versailles Peace Conference as a delegate from Azerbaijan and, after the April 1920 events when the Bolsheviks staged a coup and seized power in Azerbaijan, he did not return home from France. For this reason, he was not named as a co-author of the opera "Leyli and Majnun" in sources of musical history, although the first theatre posters named both brothers. The memories of the Hacibayov brothers clearly show that they were keen on music and theatre from their childhood. They participated in performances staged by the Russian-Tatar school in Susa. These were staged mainly by teachers under the leadership of school caretaker Hasimbay Vazirov. Ceyhun Hacibayov wrote that performances were staged and vocal music parties were held for audiences, from most of the districts of Azerbaijan, who visited Susa on holiday in summer. After amateur actors had played the scene "Leyli at Majnun's graveside", staged by the prominent Azerbaijani educator and writer Abdurrahimbay Haqverdiyev, and the memorable singer Cabbar Qaryagdioglu had sung a passionate muqam expressing all the sorrow of Majnun, the Hacibayov brothers decided to create something like an opera.

The future father of oriental music, who will forever reign upon the musical Olympus as composer of the first opera from the East and the Muslim world, Uzeyir Hacibayov, learnt to play the violin and was a member of a students' string band at the seminary in Gori (Georgia) from 1899-1904. The seminary held singing lessons and taught the foundations of music theory. The interesting life at the seminary had a strong influence on the formation of Uzeyir Hacibayov's cultural and artistic world outlook. While on summer holiday in Susa, Uzeyir practised tirelessly on the violin, familiarized his brother Ceyhun with elements of European music and taught him various operatic motifs. In turn, Ceyhun gave his brother news of Azerbaijani music and restored various forms of muqam.

And polyphony followed

The brothers started working on the opera "Leyli and Majnun" in 1907 at Baku's Islamiyya Hotel. The basis of the text of the opera was formed by lyrical excerpts from Muhammad Fizuli's "Leyli and Majnun" poem. At the same time, they used their own pieces. For different vocal numbers, Muqam tunes were selected, for example Rast and Cahargah for Majnun's father, and Sikastayi-Fars, Bayati Siraz and Segah for Majnun. Uzeyir used various folk songs and his own music, creating a good polyphonic basis for the chorus. It was Uzeyir who first used polyphony in the monophonic Azerbaijani and oriental music. The opera's libretto, based on Fizuli's poems, was prepared over several months. There was no partita in "Leyli and Majnun". It was replaced by the conductor indicating the sequence of actions and vocal numbers. Only orchestral music and folksongs were used. The actors were given full freedom to improvise muqams on condition that they did not deviate from the text. Muqam offers a vast range of options for improvisation. For this reason, every actor sang the aria from "Leyli and Majnun" in his own way.

In that period, Uzeyir was familiar only with the basics of solfeggio, which he had learnt at the seminary, and had no idea of harmony, forms of music, i.e. things that a composer must know. Nevertheless, the opera "Leyli and Majnun" achieved great popularity and success. The reason was that Azerbaijan was looking forward to a national opera performance on its own theatre stage. "Leyli and Majnun" truly combined folk music with a famous classical plot. The actors, and especially the performer of Majnun's role, Huseynqulu Sarabski, played an invaluable role in the success of the opera.

The next stage was linked to the staging of the opera, the establishment of an orchestra and casting. Uzeyir formed a string band in which his seminary friends could work as performers. This is when strenuous rehearsals began. The oriental orchestra consists of the tar, kamanca and gaval (musical instruments). Later on, Uzeyir set up a string band of oriental instruments. The Hacibayov brothers - the writers of the opera - wondered about the performers of the roles of Majnun, Leyli, Nofel and others; in that period actors were not treated very well and it was very difficult to involve prominent singers in the performance. A question mark hung over the women's roles as well. In the Azerbaijani society of that period, it was unthinkable for a woman to be on stage. Once, Uzeyir heard an amateur actor performing a secondary role, which he rated highly. It was the future great operatic actor, Mammadhuseyn Sarabli (he is known as Huseynqulu Sarabski in musical history). Uzeyir liked his pleasant voice and invited Sarabski to play the role of Majnun. Sarabski agreed with pleasure.

Casting difficulties

However, finding someone to play the role of Leyli took a long time, and they found him, unexpectedly, in a Baku teahouse. It was a cook's apprentice, Abdurrahim Faracov, who had a surprisingly tender voice. It took a very long time to persuade him. The first prompter of "Leyli and Majnun", Aliabbas Rzayev, described an interesting incident. "On the day of the first performance - 12 January 1908, Abdurrahim Faracov raised a fuss in Leyli's make-up room. He refused to put on a women's skirt. He thought that, as in rituals, he would put on a robe and a turban and come on to the stage. After a long discussion, they persuaded him to put on Leyli's costume. Some time later, more shouts could be heard from the make-up room - Faracov refused to stick a cover over his big moustache. Thousands of pleas worked in the end, and we started the performance." Faracov did not have the courage to go on stage, and they had to push him. The performance director, Huseyn Arablinski, demonstrated Leyli's movements and gestures from behind the scenes and even fell when it was required. After the performance, more shouts were heard from Faracov's make-up room. He was shouting and asking how he should wash the paint (make-up) away. It turned out that when he had tried to wash off the make-up with tap water, the varnish on his moustache had become solid. All his efforts to get rid of it were quite painful. On seeing that they were going to remove the make-up with vaseline, he grew even angrier and said that he would never allow anyone to spread pork fat on his face (everyone knows that vaseline does not contain pork fat - author). Later, Faracov refused to participate in the performance again - because of the paint and fat.

It was Ahmad Badalbayli (Ahmad Agdamski), a close relative of the Hacibayov brothers, who had to play Leyli's role on the Azerbaijani stage. His pleasant voice, graceful body and short stature were quite helpful in creating a true image of the teenager Leyli. Without Ahmad Agdamski, the first Azerbaijani opera would have been doomed to failure. The papers were full of praise for Agdamski. Later, women's roles in national opera performances were played by M. Kazimovski, H. Hacibababayov and M. T. Bagirov. For the sake of fairness, it must be noted that Agdamski was the best among the men who played Leyli's role.

The performance of Haqiqat xanim Rzayeva in the 1920s put an end to the role of Leyli being played by men and brought something new to the interpretation of the role. Haqiqat xanim was accepted into the theatre troupe in 1927. With her wide-range and pleasant voice, the actress skilfully played Leyli's eternal devotion to her love and her feelings. Later, Leyli's role was inimitably played by Gulhar Hasanova, Rubaba Muradova, Zeynab Xanlarova, Nazakat Mammadova, Qandab Quliyeva and Sakina Ismayilova. On the present-day stage, the immortal part of Leyli is wonderfully played by Nazakat Teymurova, Gulyaz Mammadova and Aygun Bayramova. Their wonderful voices and touching embodiments of the role show that they are worthy followers of this legendary tradition.

Performance and response

On 12 January 1908, the programme of the first performance "Leyli and Majnun" at the Tagiyev Theatre listed the actors in the following order: Majnun (Qeys) - Sarabski, Ummulqeys (Majnun's mother) - Kazimovski, Abulqeys (Majnun's father) - Mirza Muxtar, Leyli - Faracov, Fattah (Leyli's father) - Imran Qasimov, UmmulLeyli (Leyli's mother) - Y. Vazirov, Ibn Salam - I. Daqistanli, Zeyd - Ibrahim Qasimov, and the seven Arabs - Mammadov, Safarov, Vazirov and so on. The director was H. Arablinski. Responsibility for the choreography was given to Bahram Vazirov, Ceyhun's school friend. There was a joke about him: "If Vazirov's head worked in the same way as his feet, he would have no match in Karabakh." Bahram's dancing improvisation turned out to be very successful. An audience which had never seen Arabic dance was very pleased. It is notable that Vazirov himself was not familiar with Arabic dance either, and managed to secure a successful performance thanks only to his imagination. The first performance was accompanied by Uzeyir himself, who played the violin, while the conductor was the prominent writer and public figure, Abdurrahimbay Haqverdiyev.

The props used in the performance staged by Huseyn Arablinski were old, while the sets were fragmentary and did not correspond to the contents of the play. For example, in the scene on the Arabian Peninsula the set showed the Caucasus Mountains, while the canvas that was supposed to depict an ancient, oriental city showed houses in a French city. The orchestra, as mentioned above, consisted of Uzeyir's seminary friends who could play stringed instruments. The tar players who had been engaged started an argument over a tune and left. Only Qurban Primov and Sirin Masadi Husi oglu Axundov from Salyan helped the orchestra sound better with their wonderful performance. To compensate, Uzeyir added music for violins and wind instruments. Tulle curtains were arranged for the female audience. There were many in the audience from Azerbaijan's distant cities and villages, as well as from Tiflis, Batum, Iravan, Qazax and so on. The first performance was watched by the poet Abbas Sahhat and intellectuals from Samaxi.

Our first opera was praised by the press for a long time. However, there were ill-wishers as well. One edition of the Zanbur (Bee) humorous magazine published the following article: "We have suddenly become equal to the Italians in the sphere of music. What can you say about this? In order to create one opera, the Europeans work for a long time and, in the end, a composer like Verdi, Rubinstein, or perhaps Beethoven or Wagner, achieves something after spending half of their life on it. We, Muslims, do not work and do not study science, but spontaneously become composers. Then, if you want, compose an opera or play the zurna! Armenians do not have the courage to compose an opera, and even musicians in Turkey do not dare to write one. However, may our enemy become blind, we know how to compose operas." A later edition of Zanbur published a cartoon of Uzeyir with slippers on his feet, in a shabby coat and with a bow in his hands and with someone playing the zurna (a kind of clarinet) on his left. Sounds of music were coming from the zurna. The cartoonist wanted to say: "Look! Uzeyir Hacibayov from Karabakh dreams of creating music for the zurna." The cartoon was captioned: "The creator of opera corrects forgotten music." The critique also added a text in Russian saying: "The composer establishes a new quartet for grandpa Krylov."

Uzeyir responded to his ill-wishers with credit. He wrote: "Let them write about me whatever they want. But let them not use me as a cover to introduce provocative ideas like "Bakuvian" or "Karabakhi". The nation should be united. I am using all my knowledge, talent and skill to serve the progress of my people and, in doing so, I am not trying to please the envious traitors from Zanbur."

The great master of the stage, Mirzaga Aliyev, wrote indignantly: "If I had the power to resurrect the hacks who printed cartoons of Uzeyir Hacibayov and show them the opera "Koroglu", these gentlemen would certainly be ashamed of their deeds."

A 100 years' flourishing

Azerbaijan's first opera "Leyli and Majnun" has been immortalised in the history of the arts. Uzeyir Hacibayov dreamt of creating a new version of "Leyli and Majnun" which would meet all the requirements of classical opera. The "Aria of Majnun's father" was an example of the great composer's efforts. Nowadays, it is rarely played on radio, as performed by Bulbul. The opera "Leyli and Majnun" could be performed on the world stage as a classical piece with partita composed on the basis of Azerbaijani muqams. But let's not be upset. The composer genius created it in order to serve the moral-aesthetic ideas of his people. For 100 years, the opera "Leyli and Majnun" has taken its worthy place in the repertoire of the country's music theatres.

The prominent figure in the history of Azerbaijani opera music and memorable and legendary performer of the role of Majnun, Huseynqulu Sarabski (Rzayev), began his theatrical life in the drama troupes of Nariman Narimanov, M. Kazimovski and others. This was in 1892. Before that, Huseynqulu had worked as a stonemason, sailor or labourer. He first saw an amateur performance at the age of 16. This was Mirza Fatali Axundov's drama, "The Adventures of the Minister of the Khan of Lankaran". Then Sarabski, who had no idea of theatre before that, wrote: "The lights went off and fear overwhelmed me. When they started raising the curtain, it seemed that the wall of the theatre building was collapsing. I stood up, shouted and ran away. The audience laughed at me." But fate decreed that Huseynqulu Sarabski was to become an irreplaceable Majnun on our stage - a star of Uzeyir Hacibayov's immortal opera. After the first performance, even people in the street called him Majnun. He played this role more than 400 times.

One of the oldest music historians, Ramazan Xalilov, said that he had seen all the Majnuns of our stage. He is convinced that no-one could play Majnun better than Sarabski. After him, this role was played by opera soloists Aliovsat Sadiqov and Sirzad Huseynov. The unique voice and vibrato of the former and the pleasant voice, and the tall, slim body of the latter made them favourites with the audience. Representatives of succeeding generations lived Majnun's life on the stage - Abulfat Quliyev with his perfect singing, Arif Babayev - with his sweet, honeyed voice and Baba Mahmudoglu - with his deep, theatrical culture and sincere feeling for his character. The modern Majnun of our stage, Mansum Ibrahimov, is known for his melodious voice and wide range. The baritone Sahlar Quliyev is an irreplaceable performer of the role of Nofel. It is pleasing that all performances of "Leyli and Majnun" always receive very good notices. Foreign theatre goers, who listen tirelessly to the charming music of the opera, have become regular visitors to the opera theatre. The 100-year-old "Leyli and Majnun" is experiencing a new period of youth; because Uzeyir Hacibayov's great music is a symbol of immortality!