Dikran Tchouhadjian’s Opera Arif՚s Ruse (dedicated to the 150th anniversary of creating the first Armenian comic opera)

Abstract

On December 9, 1872, Dikran Tchouhadjian’s Arif’s Ruse, the first Armenian comic opera, was staged at the Getik Pasha Theatre in Constantinople, simultaneously marking the beginning of the Turkish musical theatre. The author of the opera libretto was an Armenian opera singer, the first Western Armenian singer who received his professional education in Europe, tenor Hovhannes Achemian (1838-1905), who performed the title role of Arif. The Ottoman stage primadonna Shazik Keuyluyian (born Sevadjian, Lusnak Sargsi Keuyluyian, 1854- 1905) played the main character, Meriem. The performance of Arif was the first occasion in the Armenian musical reality when an Armenian composer’s opera was on stage, performed by Armenian artists. This was not only the birthday of the Armenian comic opera, but also it marked the beginning of the Armenian musical theatre. In the present study on Tchouhadjian’s music, presented to the English-speaking readers for the first time, the results of the opera’s comprehensive research are substantiated, defining the genre of Arif as a comic opera, revealing its musical language and dramaturgical features, and putting forward the necessity of staging it in Armenia, as well as publishing an academic edition of the opera score and claviers. The clavier of the opera prelude has been introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the computer composition of which was carried out by assistant professor Anna Tamiroghlyan, Doctor of Arts.