First Islamic opera was written in Azerbaijan
By Charles van der Leeuw

The famous opera “Leyla and Majnun,” a mixture of medieval Azeri and contemporary Russian music, was the cradle of Azeri opera. Composed by Uzeir Haddjibekov, The opera was first performed in the early 20th century.

Leyla and Majnun had its birth as a pre-islamic Arabian folk-tale. The story had been carried down from generation to generation over the centuries by numerous poets.

It is the simple tale of young lovers who, for social reasons, were forbidden to stay together. Leyla is forced to marry a foreign prince who is a favorite of her parents, and dies.

After his lover’s death, Majnun resigns from public life and stays in the desert. Finally, he dies of a broken heart at her tomb. The word Majnun means " foolish" in Arabic for he refuses to listen to the voice of reason and continues chasing after illusions at his heart's whim.

The author of Leyla and Majnun as opera, Uzeir Haddjibekov, was born in 1885 in Lower-Karabakh, and grew up in Upper-Karabakh, then an important intellectual and cultural center. It is believed that he first conceived of the idea of transforming Leyla and Majnun from an epic poem into an elaborate opera when still a young boy.

Most of the orchestral parts in the opera were influenced by the Russian school. The choruses, overtures, airs and duets have borrowed a lot of Russian contemporary style.

The first performance of Leyla and Majnun at Taghiev's theatre in Baku in 1908 was a glorious success. This was despite the fact that the Islamic clergy had threatened any woman who would dare sing the part of Leyla. Thus, on the first evening of the opera, the part was sung by a young boy. It was only after the thundering ovations as the curtain dropped on that first evening, and enthusiastic newspaper articles that followed the next morning, that female opera artists decided to defy the mullahs.

In the years that followed, Haddjibekov composed a huge amount of work including oratoria, musical comedies, symphonic pieces, chamber music and five more operas. After the communist occupation began, however, he concentrated on theoretic study and on the establishment of a solid music education system. A direct result of that was an extensive network of music schools throughout the country, and a conservatory in Baku named after him.

Haddjibekov produced just one more opera in his later years, which he worked on from 1932 till 1936. But then these were difficult times for all intellectuals throughout the USSR. His immense popularity with the Azeri people, however, kept Haddjibekov safe from the terrible persecutions in which so many of his peers spent in foreign exile or were killed. As it was, the composer died a natural death in Baku in 1948.

Apart from a rich musical repertoire of his own, Haddjibekov left behind in Azerbaijan an honored tradition of composers and musicians. The tradition that remains alive today and is even now being carried forward by numerous young Azeri composers.