Arsalan Kamkar announced his new work entitled: Rabia Opera, which is based on life of Rābiʿa bint Kaʿb (Rabia Balkhi).
According to Artmag quoted by IRNA, Arsalan Kamkar, musician and composer, about his new work, said: This work narrates Rabia Balkhi’s tragic love in five scenes. I composed the music for this opera in two years, which is a combination of classical music and Iranian music.
He added: “Unfortunately, we are in a situation where there is grief for the people on the one hand and Russian invasion of Ukraine on other and fear of starting a full-fledged world war, and it may be difficult to talk about art, but in any case because art should not be in any If conditions stop, we must continue on this path. Rabia’s opera is based on the poetic play Rabia Rabab Eshgh(Love) written by Masoud Yahyavi, which is a look at the wonderful life of Rabia Balkhi, a poet of the fourth century AH.
The artist added: She lived with Rudaki for a while and her father and brother were the rulers of Balkh, Sistan and Kandahar, some of Iran at that time. Attar Neyshabouri tells the story of Rabia’s failed love Brought in Elahi Nameh and Abu Sa’id Abu al-Khair and Abdul Rahman Jami have considered Rabia as a mystic and Sufi poet.
He continued: “Although there are few poems left by Rabia and the rest have been destroyed by her brother or like many of Rudaki’s works over time, he has been called the mother of persian poetry and her passionate love has become a legend.” Rabia bint Ka’b vowed to reach the Ka’bah on foot and had arrived. Her brother’s jealousy and imperfection not only invaded her sanctuary of love, but also took his life, and the most catastrophic event was that his brother burned and destroyed all her poems, and these days we have only a few lyric poems by Rabia.
The composer pointed out: Rabia’s opera depicts Rabia Balkhi in five scenes of tragic love, and I composed the music for this opera in two years. This two-hour work is a combination of classical music and Iranian music.
Arsalan Kamkar emphasized: My artist friend Massoud Yahyavi has worked on text of this work and there are Rabia poems in this work. Six years ago, he brought the text to school for me to read, so although it was hard work, I agreed to make an opera based on it. I plan to record this piece of music soon, if the conditions allow. Of course, because two hours of music is really expensive, many colleagues have to work with me in a friendly way so that we can record this work.
In the end, he said: I also wanted to perform this work on stage, so I talked to the officials of Vahdat Hall. It is thought that role of Rabia and her mother should be played by two female singers, so I am thinking about this issue so that I can reach right result. I would like to perform this work in Iran and I had offers to perform it in Azerbaijan and Ukraine before the Russian invasion.
