''Rustam and Zohrab'' (in Azeri ''Rüstәm vә Söһrab'') is the third

mugham Mugham () or Mughamat () is one of the many classical compositions from Azerbaijan, contrasting with tasnif and ashik. It is an art form that weds classical poetry and musical improvisation in specific local modes. Mugham is a modal system. ...

opera by

Uzeyir Hajibeyov Uzeyir bey Abdulhuseyn bey oghlu Hajibeyov (18 September 188523 November 1948) was an Azerbaijanis, Azerbaijani composer, musicologist and teacher. He is recognized as the father of Azerbaijani classical music. He composed the music of the Az� ...

. It was composed in 1910 based on the story of

Rostam and Sohrab The tragedy of "Rostam and Sohrab" forms part of the 10th-century Persian epic ''Shahnameh'' by the Persian poet Ferdowsi. It tells the tragic story of the heroes Rostam and his son, Sohrab.Ebrahimi, Mokhtar & Taheri, Abdollah. (2017). The Trage ...

of the epic poem ''

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...

'' by

Ferdowsi Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...

, and written in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. Hajibeyov shortened the mugham scene in this opera, devoting much attention to the author's music. The existence of several versions of its

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

created an authorship controversy. This was investigated by M. Aslanov, who determined Uzeyir Hajibeyov as the primary author'','' as well as other poems initially attributed to poet and gazel writer Azer Buzovnali. The opera premiered on November 12, 1910, in the H. Z.Taghiyev theatre in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

, with

Huseyngulu Sarabski Huseyngulu Sarabski (), born Hüseynqulu Malik oğlu Rzayev (20 March 1879 – 16 February 1945), was an Azerbaijani opera singer (tenor), composer, playwright, stage actor, theatre director, and musician (tar). Early life Sarabski was born to p ...

as stage director and Hajibeyov as conductor. Huseyngulu Sarabski (Zohrab), Ahmed Agdamski (Tahmina), M. H. Teregulov (Keykavus) and others played the leading parts. The opera did not achieve success and Hajibeyov took it off the stage. After some revisions the opera was to be staged in March 1915 at a benefit performance of Muslim Magomayev, although it was eventually cancelled due to lack of popularity.

References

{{Authority control Operas by Uzeyir Hajibeyov 1910 operas Operas based on literature Azerbaijani-language operas Operas set in Azerbaijan Works based on Shahnameh