İshakpaşa Palace hosts opera festival

AĞRI - Anatolia News Agency

The Legend of Mount Ararat’ opera was performed at the İshakpaşa Palace. DHA Photo.

The sixth annual Legend of Mount Ararat Festival kicked off Tuesday night with an opera at the eastern province of Ağrı’s iconic İshakpaşa Palace.

The opera, the “Legend of Mount Ararat,” was adapted from famous Turkish novelist Yaşar Kemal’s “Ağrı Dağı Efsanesi” (The Legend of Mount Ararat) in 1970 by composer Çetin Işıközlü. It was staged at the opening event of the festival, which took place in the district of Doğubeyazıt.

The concert, performed by a pianist, six soloists and a flute solo artist from the Istanbul and Ankara State Opera and Ballet companies, drew great interest.

“This is the best place to show the ‘Legend of Mount Ararat,” said Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay, who took the stage at the end of the nearly two-hour opera.

Restorations on İshakpaşa Palace will be completed by the end of next year, he said. When that happens, “we will organize more comprehensive operas. This was like a rehearsal without costumes and décor, but only with piano and flute,” he added.

Call for peace

Günay said he hoped events like the festival would work toward bridging peaceful gaps between the east and west of Turkey. The eastern part of the country has seen an uptick of violence in recent months as the government battles members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

“We want artistic events to be organized in our land all the time. We want peace and brotherhood,” Günay said, reciting republican founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s famous quote: “Peace at home, peace in the world.”