Turkish opera blazes trail in German city

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’ is the first Turkish opera included in the repertoire of a European opera company. The opera was first performed on March 25.

Germany’s Wuppertal State Opera has become one of the first European opera companies to add a Turkish opera to its repertoire with its performance of “Ali Baba ve Kırkharamiler” (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves).

“The art director of the Wuppertal State Opera found this piece by accident and later did research on it via the Internet. After he listened to the music, he fell in love with it and he decided to make a season about Turkey,” tenor Ünüşan Kuloğlu, who plays Ali Baba in the opera, recently told Anatolia news agency.

The opera was first performed on March 25, Kuloğlu said. In all, the Wuppertal company will perform the show 10 times.

The staging of “Ali Baba” is very important for the Turkish opera scene, Kuloğlu said. 

“We made the world premiere in Turkey, but the opera has now spread its fame to the rest of the world. This is very important thing for us,” the tenor said.

“We have staged the opera before in Europe, but these [performances] only happened within the framework of the tour that we were participating in. This time, an art director wanted to stage the opera on their own stage and added the opera to their repertoire,” added Kuloğlu.

The auditions were also open to Turkish opera artists and others, he said. “They listened to many artists but decided to work with me.”

The premiere of the opera was on March 25. The second staging of the play will be on April 11.