Gharibpour’s ‘Ashura’ puppet opera to go on stage in Tehran

Tehran’s Vahdat Hall is to host a theatrical performance titled ‘Ashura Opera’ with a theme on Imam Hussein (AS) as of August 10-13, 2022.

Recreated by famous Iranian playwright and director Behrouz Gharibpour in collaboration with the Aran Puppet Group, the opera depicts the incidents leading to the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS) the third Shia Imam and his 72 followers on the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram.  

The music of the opera is composed by Behzad Abdipour with Mohammad Motamedi, Mostafa Mahmoudi and Mohammadreza Sadeqi making the vocalists team.

The Ashura opera puppet show is an integration of music, puppetry, poetry and Ta’ziah (Persian passion play).

Gharibpour’s Ashura has been staged in many international theater festivals in Spain, Algeria, Syria, Poland and Italy.

The play was warmly received at the Charleville-Mezieres’s International Puppet Theatre Festival in France, 2011, where it was given two extra performances.

Gharibpour’s ‘Hafez’ puppet opera show also went on stage in Dubai during three-day program from November 18 through 20,2013.

The opera has been adapted from the life and works of the Persian lyric poet Hafez Shirazi.

Behrouz Gharibpour is considered as one of the pioneers of traditional Persian puppet theatre, known for his extensive research on Qajar puppetry.

He has received many international awards such as The Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2002 and Sierna d’Oro (Arrivano dal mare) in 2008.

Macbeth, Mowlavi, Ashura and Rostam and Sohrab are among his better-known works.

MM/FM