ASTANA – “Birzhan-Sara” by Mukan Tolebayev, will be performed as part of the Astana Opera’s new theatre season. The opera, which according to the company’s marketing research has become popular among young people, will be part of the Silk Road International Festival.
Birzhan’s part will be presented by Akhmed Agadi, an outstanding tenor of our time and one of the best performers of this role. An Honoured Artist of Russia and People’s Artist of Tatarstan, he will sing a duet with brilliant opera singer Aigul Niyazova, who will play Sara. The part of Birzhan’s mother, Analyk, will be performed by Dina Khamzina, a sensual interpretation that will touch the hearts of the audience. Zhannat Baktai will perform jealous Altynai and Beimbet Tanarykov will play the party of Yestai.
A memorable work of the famous Kazakh composer, “Bіrzhan-Sara” is the new musical version by Abzal Mukhitdinov, with staging by Yuri Alexandrov, which premiered in the Astana Opera on June 21, 2013. The original staging by the People’s Artist of Russia gained great popularity due to the new vision of the director and the complex and deep relationship between poet and composer Birzhan and poet Sara. Alexandrov made opera accessible not only for the present generation to understand, but by conveying to the viewer the idea of personal drama and eternal love.
“Bіrzhan-Sara” has been performed with great success not only in Kazakh theatres but also abroad, in Germany, Turkey, Russia, Uzbekistan and other countries. The first performance was held on Nov. 7, 1946 on the stage of the city’s Abai State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The Russian premiere took place in Moscow in 1948.
The opera presents a vivid embodiment of musical and poetic tradition that attaches originality to ingenious musical composition disclosed in its entirety and depth. Almost 70 years after its creation, “Bіrzhan-Sara” remains an example of inexhaustible artistic power, born in the synthesis of national and universal cultural and poetic experience.
