The video has been commissioned by the Shams of Tabriz and Rumi Foundation, foundation Managing Director Hojjatollah Ayyubi told the Persian service of IRNA on Sunday.
The opera, which has been composed by Iranian musician and conductor Loris Tjeknavorian, is about Persian poet and mystic Rumi’s first encounter with Shams, he said.
“Rumi’s first encounter with Shams is one of the most mysterious events in the history of the culture and mysticism of the Orient, and this opera plans to represent it through music and theater,” he added.
Ayyubi said that a large foreign orchestra will be hired to perform the opera.
Excerpts from Rumi’s Divan of Shams selected by Kiarostami were published in July 2011 in a book entitled “The Fire”.
A small orchestra conducted by Tjeknavorian premiered an act from the opera during the opening ceremony of the Shams Hall at the ECO Cultural Institute in Tehran on December 15, 2012.
“The Sham of Tabriz Opera” has been composed in five acts mostly based on Rumi’s poems, Tjeknavorian said during the ceremony.
“Part of the opera is about Rumi and his family, which is amazing and very romantic,” he added.
“All of us Iranians are raised with works Rumi, Ferdowsi and other great poets of our country,” he stated.
Rumi and Shams
Influential German Orientalist and scholar Annemarie Schimmel (1922–2003) wrote, “The decisive moment in Rumi’s life occurred on November 30, 1244, when in the streets of Konya he met the wandering dervish — holy man — Shams ad-Din (Sun of Religion) of Tabriz, whom he may have first encountered in Syria.”
“Shams ad-Din cannot be connected with any of the traditional mystical fraternities; his overwhelming personality, however, revealed to Jalal ad-Din (Rumi) the mysteries of divine majesty and beauty. For months the two mystics lived closely together, and Rumi neglected his disciples and family.
“The family, however, could not tolerate the close relation of Jalal ad-Din with his beloved, and one night in 1247 Shams disappeared forever.
“… This experience of love, longing, and loss turned Rumi into a poet. His mystical poems — about 30,000 verses and a large number of rubaiyat (quatrains) —reflect the different stages of his love, until, as his son writes, ‘he found Shams in himself, radiant like the moon.’ The complete identification of lover and beloved is expressed by his inserting the name of Shams instead of his own pen name at the end of most of his lyrical poems. The Divan of Shams is a true translation of his experiences into poetry.”
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