Huseyngulu Sarabski
Encyclopedia
Huseyngulu Sarabski born Huseyngulu Malik oglu Rzayev (20 March 1879, Baku
– 16 February 1945, Baku
), was an Azerbaijan
i opera
singer (tenor
), composer, playwright
, stage actor, theatre director, and musician (tar
).
, now capital of Azerbaijan
) on Nowruz
Eve. At a young age, he was sent to a mullah
to study the Koran. Unable to overcome the language barrier
and having often received severe beatings from the mullah, Huseyngulu managed to convince his parents to let him quit. In 1891, at the age 12, he watched a theatrical performance for the first time. It was staged by amateur actors
and called Khan Sarabi adapted from Mirza Fatali Akhundov
's play Sarguzasht-i vazir-i Khan-i Lankaran. Young Huseyngulu enjoyed the performance and later chose the pseudonym
Sarabski reflecting on his first encounter with theatre. As a teenager, he enrolled in Russian
night courses for the poor funded by Zeynalabdin Taghiyev. Before becoming a prominent actor, he had been making a living through smithery, stone dressing and blue collar
work.
's Dilin balasi. He later acted in dramatic pieces by various Azeri and Western Europe
an authors, but it was not until his role in Almansor by Heinrich Heine
where his incredible performance of the Hijaz-i Arabi mugham
was noticed by composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov
leading to Sarabski choosing a career in musical theatre
. In 1908, he was assigned the primary role in Hajibeyov's opera Leyli and Majnun (which was also the first Azeri and the first Oriental opera in history). In the next 30 years of his career he would act as Majnun in the said opera about 400 times. Starting from 1914, a troupe led by Sarabski and conductor (and future composer) Muslim Magomayev went on tours to Tiflis, Elisabethpol, Erivan, Vladikavkaz
, Tabriz
, Rasht
, and Teheran to perform Leyli and Majnun and other pieces in front of the local audiences. Back in Baku, the staging was carried out weekly. Between 1923 and 1926 he founded a theatre troupe in Shamakhi
and a dramatic theatre in Agdam
.
Sarabski composed lied
en Mughan and Bizim daghlar, as well as the children's song Ay-ay.
In 1936–1937 he wrote a book called Kohna Baki ("Old Baku") where along with historical and ethnographic information, he included the history of the city's rich musical traditions.
Between 1940 and 1942, Sarabski taught opera and mugham at the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire. Some of his students like Sara Gadimova and Shovkat Alakbarova
went on to become prominent Azerbaijani singers.
. On his deathbed, when he was only able to communicate through writing, he was visited by opera singer Hagigat Rzayeva
(whom he had had as a stage partner for 15 years), and asked her to sing an aria
from Leyli and Majnun. Following her singing, he added to his will
that he would like a piece from that opera to play during his funeral with Rzayeva singing while his body is laid into the grave.
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
– 16 February 1945, Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
), was an Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
i opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer (tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
), composer, playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, stage actor, theatre director, and musician (tar
Tar (lute)
The tār is a long-necked, waisted Iranian instrument. It has been adopted by other cultures and Azerbaijan. The word tar itself means "string" in Persian, though it might have the same meaning in languages influenced by Persian or any other branches of Iranian languages like Kurdish...
).
Early life
Sarabski was born to poor parents in Baku (then part of the Russian EmpireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, now capital of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
) on Nowruz
Nowruz
Nowrūz is the name of the Iranian New Year in Iranian calendars and the corresponding traditional celebrations. Nowruz is also widely referred to as the Persian New Year....
Eve. At a young age, he was sent to a mullah
Mullah
Mullah is generally used to refer to a Muslim man, educated in Islamic theology and sacred law. The title, given to some Islamic clergy, is derived from the Arabic word مَوْلَى mawlā , meaning "vicar", "master" and "guardian"...
to study the Koran. Unable to overcome the language barrier
Language barrier
Language barrier is a figurative phrase used primarily to indicate the difficulties faced when people who have no language in common attempt to communicate with each other...
and having often received severe beatings from the mullah, Huseyngulu managed to convince his parents to let him quit. In 1891, at the age 12, he watched a theatrical performance for the first time. It was staged by amateur actors
Amateur theatre
Amateur theatre is theatre performed by amateur actors. These actors are not typically members of Actors' Equity groups or Actors' Unions as these organizations exist to protect the professional industry and therefore discourage their members from appearing with companies which are not a signatory...
and called Khan Sarabi adapted from Mirza Fatali Akhundov
Mirza Fatali Akhundov
Mirza Fatali Akhundov , former – Akhundzade , was a celebrated Azerbaijani author, playwright, philosopher, and founder of modern literary criticism, "who acquired fame primarily as the writer of European-inspired plays in the Azeri language"...
's play Sarguzasht-i vazir-i Khan-i Lankaran. Young Huseyngulu enjoyed the performance and later chose the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Sarabski reflecting on his first encounter with theatre. As a teenager, he enrolled in Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
night courses for the poor funded by Zeynalabdin Taghiyev. Before becoming a prominent actor, he had been making a living through smithery, stone dressing and blue collar
Blue collar
Blue collar can refer to:*Blue-collar worker, a traditional designation of the working class*Blue-collar crime, the types of crimes typically associated with the working class*A census designation...
work.
Career in theatre
Sarabski's first role was that of Rasul in Nariman NarimanovNariman Narimanov
Narimanov Nariman Karbalayi Najaf oglu was an Azerbaijani revolutionary, writer, publicist, politician and statesman. In 1920, Narimanov headed the Soviet government of Azerbaijan, the Provisional Military-Revolutionary Committee , replacing Mirza Davud Huseynov, then he was the Chairman of the...
's Dilin balasi. He later acted in dramatic pieces by various Azeri and Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
an authors, but it was not until his role in Almansor by Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
where his incredible performance of the Hijaz-i Arabi mugham
Mugham
Mugam also known as Azerbaijani Mugham is one of the many folk musical compositions from Azerbaijan, contrast with Tasnif, Ashugs. Mugam draws on Iranian-Arabic-Turkish Maqam....
was noticed by composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov
Uzeyir Hajibeyov
Uzeyir bey Abdul Hussein oglu Hajibeyov was an Azerbaijani and Soviet composer, conductor, publicist, playwright, teacher, translator, and social figure from Azerbaijan. He is recognized as the father of Azerbaijani classical music and opera...
leading to Sarabski choosing a career in musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
. In 1908, he was assigned the primary role in Hajibeyov's opera Leyli and Majnun (which was also the first Azeri and the first Oriental opera in history). In the next 30 years of his career he would act as Majnun in the said opera about 400 times. Starting from 1914, a troupe led by Sarabski and conductor (and future composer) Muslim Magomayev went on tours to Tiflis, Elisabethpol, Erivan, Vladikavkaz
Vladikavkaz
-Notable structures:In Vladikavkaz, there is a guyed TV mast, tall, built in 1961, which has six crossbars with gangways in two levels running from the mast structure to the guys.-Twin towns/sister cities:...
, Tabriz
Tabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
, Rasht
Rasht
Rasht is a city in and the capital of Gilan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 551,161, in 159,983 families.Rasht is the largest city on Iran's Caspian Sea coast. It is a major trade center between Caucasia, Russia and Iran using the port of Bandar-e Anzali...
, and Teheran to perform Leyli and Majnun and other pieces in front of the local audiences. Back in Baku, the staging was carried out weekly. Between 1923 and 1926 he founded a theatre troupe in Shamakhi
Shamakhi
Shamakhi or Shamakhy is a rayon of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and a town in the rayon. It is the historical center of the region of Shirvan.The town is west of Baku. It has more than 20,000 inhabitants, among them Azerbaijanis and Russians...
and a dramatic theatre in Agdam
Agdam
Agdam or Ağdam or Aghdam may refer to:*Agdam city, Azerbaijan*Agdam Rayon, Azerbaijan*Ağdam, Khojavend, Azerbaijan*Ağdam, Tovuz, Azerbaijan...
.
Other contributions
Before 1918, Sarabski wrote three plays entitled Jahalat ("Ignorancy"), Akhtaran tapar ("He Who Searches Will Find") and Na dograrsan gashina, o chixar gashigina ("What Goes Around, Comes Around") and had them staged by both amateur and professional troupes.Sarabski composed lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
en Mughan and Bizim daghlar, as well as the children's song Ay-ay.
In 1936–1937 he wrote a book called Kohna Baki ("Old Baku") where along with historical and ethnographic information, he included the history of the city's rich musical traditions.
Between 1940 and 1942, Sarabski taught opera and mugham at the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire. Some of his students like Sara Gadimova and Shovkat Alakbarova
Shovkat Alakbarova
Shovkat Feyzulla qizi Alakbarova was an Azerbaijani singer.-Life and Career Development:Shovkat Alakbarova was born to Azeri parents - Feyzulla and Hokuma Alakbarov and was the third of the family's four children. Her mother was a professional tar player and her father, a labourer, was a folk...
went on to become prominent Azerbaijani singers.
Death
Sarabski died from throat cancer in 1945 and was buried at the Alley of Honor in BakuBaku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
. On his deathbed, when he was only able to communicate through writing, he was visited by opera singer Hagigat Rzayeva
Hagigat Rzayeva
Hagigat Ali qizi Rzayeva was an Azerbaijani actress and singer .-Career:Hagigat Rzayeva was born in a small village near Lankaran . Her father died of pneumonia when she was eighteen months old...
(whom he had had as a stage partner for 15 years), and asked her to sing an aria
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
from Leyli and Majnun. Following her singing, he added to his will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
that he would like a piece from that opera to play during his funeral with Rzayeva singing while his body is laid into the grave.