By Heidi Trautmann

The young year of 2019 has started with a historical event: The first full opera performance in the TRNC, an immense undertaking by the Turkish Cypriot Presidential Symphony Orchestra and the soloists, realized in the auditorium of the Atatürk Culture and Congress Hall at the Near East University, with no orchestra pit, and lighting that was not at all perfect but, as we could see with amazement, they did it and they did it wonderfully well.

A second stage floor was set up in the background and on a huge canvas Toscany landscape images were shown in front of which the love story and its dangers and implications developed and were spun in a setting with a minimum of décor. Bravo.

The members of the orchestra were included in the acting part, the singers - in lovely costumes -wandered in-between the rows of musicians, addressed them directly with their solos, as if they were part of the plot… a perfect solution by the stage director, because in some moments on the auxiliary stage, the singers’ voices were ‘swallowed’ by the orchestra which was right in front of them. To make the best of a situation, that is what the Turkish Cypriots are known for.

The orchestra:

Conductor: Ali Hoca; 31 orchestra musicians with Nihat Ağdaç as Concert Master….(to give the reader an idea how occupied the stage was…)

Stage Director: Figen Ayhan Karakelle

The soloists:

Sermin Dikmen Töre, Soprano

Bariş Yanç, Tenor

Arda Aktar, Baritone

Tuğrul Enver Töre, Baritone

Hatice Zeliha, Kökcek

I was very touched by the performance and when I looked around me they all were moved by this extraordinary evening. President Mustafa Akıncı who sat right in the middle of the hall with his wife Meral expressed his feelings of pride at the end of the evening when they both climbed on stage to thank the performers and to address the audience.

It is a lesson for life, it is not the décor that is important but the contents, it is the joy and love for music.

There was a second performnace planned for Famagusta....which, while I am writing this text, will start in about 15 minutes. Break your leg...