Murat Karahan named new director of Turkey’s State Opera and Ballet

ISTANBUL

Murat Karahan

Change is afoot in Turkey’s State Theaters (DT) and the State Opera and Ballet (DOB), with Murat Karahan appointed as the new general director of the State Opera and Ballet.

Karahan is the nephew of former minister İsmet Sezgin and has taken the stage as a tenor singer in leading theaters such as the Russian Bolshoi Theater and The Royal Opera House in London.

Selman Ada had been in the post since July 2014 and was discharged from his office two months ago.

Nejat Birecik, who had worked as the State Theater General Director since 2014, was also removed from his office and replaced by Mustafa Kurt.

Kurt had been in the same post before Birecik and resigned in 2014 over the fact that a number of original lines in a Goethe play, staged by the Istanbul State Theater at the time, were found “inconvenient” by the Culture and Tourism Ministry.