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Say I am You - Mevlana : opera

Say I am You-Mevlâna (2012) is a chamber opera for eight voices, Turkish instruments and ensemble in eight tableaux (80’) with libretto by the composer, which portrays the spiritual transformation of 13th century mystic Jelaluddin Rumi at the instigation of Shams of Tabriz. A co-production of Istanbul Culture and Arts Foundation (IKSV), Rotterdam Operadagen, and the Istanbul Music Festival, VocaalLAB Nederland and Hezarfen Ensemble, it premièred at Rotterdam Operadagen and Topkapı Palace, Istanbul in June 2012, with video scenography by Tessa Joosse. Production was funded by the 400. years Turkey-Netherlands committee, SICA (NL), Dutch Consulate Istanbul and IKSV, with a CD released (Métier, MSV28539) in 2013 with the original cast.

Say I am You-Mevlâna tackles formidable research questions and is unprecedented in several respects. Foremost is the integration of Turkish Instruments and Azeri voice into a Western contemporary vocal and instrumental operatic context over a full evening, something that had never before been attempted. Extensive pre-compositional studies probing the ‘orchestrational’ possibilities of Turkish instruments and Azeri voice, including five preparatory works (amongst them the ‘Turkish’ Concerto for BBCSO) laid the groundwork for this. Pre-compositional research specifically addressed problems related to the combining of disparate tuning systems, matching Azeri voice with Turkish Instruments, teaching Western singers to vocally enact sufi rituals, and Turkish instrumentalists to play under a conductor in a contemporary music context, in order to create a sound world absolutely unique to this opera. The libretto, based on carefully chosen translations of Rumi’s poetry, with thoroughly investigated ‘emic’, Turkish/Islamic perspectives feeding into ultimately independent theatrical and compositional decisions, itself represents a singular achievement. The Rumi (Mevlâna) that emerges, then, is one truly universal, not ‘of the East or of the West,’ but simultaneously from and beyond both, leaving behind these ultimately irrelevant, outdated concepts in search for human essentials.

This item is double weighted because of the vast resources necessary for its realisation, beginning from a thorough study of Rumi and his world, a comparison of all available translations of his poetry, comparison to the sounds of the original Persian, the crafting of the libretto, the introduction of a notational system for Turkish instruments and mapping how these would integrate into a Western ensemble, meetings with stage directors, dramaturgs and video scenographers and co-producers. Even after the preparatory work, the music took the greater part of three years to write; therefore I request that this be double-weighted.