12th Türksoy Opera Days in the TRNC
in the Kyrenia Amphitheatre, on September 27
by Heidi Trautmann
It was the for second time that the Turkic Opera Festival was held at the Amphitheatre of Kyrenia, again with the Mersin State Opera and Ballet Orchestra directed by Elsad Bagirov and eleven soloists from 9 countries namely Azerbaijan, Kazakistan, Kirgistan, Turkey, Bashkurdistan, Tataristan, Hakas, Gagavuz Yeri and the TRNC. The organisers of the Opera Evening were the TRNC Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Culture and the General Directorate of Joint Administration of Turkic Culture and Arts (Türksoy).
Admittance was free. And so it takes wonder that the theatre was only half full. We should really appreciate the effort of the organisers more and fill the arena to the rim for the extraordinary occasion of hearing arias of the finest. For me it is always a wonderful feeling to step down into the well-lit auditorium with the night sky above me and the breeze from the sea in expectation of the things to come while watching the orchestra tuning their instruments. We had cushions with us but nowadays cushions are given out free for the guests.
Soon the stage was highlighted to receive the many honorary people to hold their speeches and receive their plaquettes of honour. The history of Türksoy was told by many important tongues:
The General Directorate of Joint Administration of Turkic Culture and Arts (Türksoy) is an international foundation which was established in 1993 in Almaty among the ministers of culture of the Turkish speaking countries Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and the Republic of Turkey. The countries which participated later as observing members are the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Khakasia, Tuva, Altai Republic, Sakha(Yakutia) Republic and Gagauzia. The official language is Turkish and its headquarters are in Ankara. The main goal of Türksoy is to establish relationship among the Turkish speaking countries based on friendship to research and promote the Turkish culture preserving it for the next generation.
The music programme started with some scenes of the famous legend “Kiz Jibek” sung and performed by ten artists of the Kazak State Opera and Ballet Theatre in most exquisite and dramatic costumes accompanied by Gülsim Ebdirova on the piano. We were taken through the most famous European operas, arias sung in the original languages by Turkic artists of highest standard, arias from operas by Bizet, Puccini, Rossini, Mozart, Verdi, Korsakov and Gounod. I cannot name all the wonderful artists but I must again say that it was a pleasure to listen to them except that the Mozart interpreter did not feel too well in the high regions of her song.
The artists promised to come again next year. It is not only music that Türksoy carries through the world making their culture known among the people of the world, it is also visual artists that I have seen coming to our island working together with our artists to get to know each other and exchange views on art and culture.