Stage director Behruz Gharibpur took "Hafez" opera puppet show on stage at Tehran's Ferdowsi Hall on Saturday after three years of continuous efforts. The Aran Theater Troupe including a team of about 30 singers led by prominent singer Alireza Qorbani are collaborating with Gharibpur in this play.
"I began to collect my notes and sat down to write the opera puppet show of Hafez three years ago and I did my best to make it different from my previous works," he told the Persian service of Fars News Agency on Monday.
He continued, "I was looking for new voices and selected 30 from among 90 volunteers and now I am satisfied that I made the right selection and the best decision."
"I would like to remove all the memories of previous shows from the minds of viewers so they would not find any similarities between the operas. That's why I insisted on collaborating with new composers and singers," Gharibpur said.
Behruz Gharibpur
He also said, "Tazieh (Iranian passion play) was a great help in this opera. We have made use of tazieh for different roles, ending with good results, since I aimed to show that tazieh is a rich treasure and needs to be revived."
"Tazieh is an Iranian opera, which must be praised and preserved," he added.
Although Hafez experienced a hard life in his time, he never felt disappointed. He understood the pain and suffering of the people of his time thoroughly and narrated it in his poetry, Gharibpur added.
Gharibpur, who has previously staged the opera puppet shows "Macbeth", "Ashura", "Rustam and Sohrab", and "Rumi" had earlier said that he is planning to produce a different opera this time and to have it be different from his previous works.
The opera is scheduled to go on stage for one month. A collection of puppets from different opera puppet shows by Gharibpur is currently on show at Ferdowsi Hall as well.
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