On Saturday night we had the great privilege of seeing a Kazakh Opera at the stunning Abay Opera House. This 82-year-old building is one of a dozen or so theatres in Almaty but is THE premiere place in town to see opera, ballet and classical music. The theatre is named after Abay Qunanbaiuly, the great Kazakh poet, philosopher, and composer. Fittingly, we saw the opera Abay, which stars the great poet himself. It was a 2 hour and 40 minute Abay extravaganza! :)
When we entered the opera house, we were greeted by a quartet of musicians playing live classical music. The opera had a full orchestra with it, so I imagine these were some of the orchestra members. It was definitely a more enjoyable way of passing the time versus going to our seats right away.
The theatre itself was quite stunning and in excellent condition. While the lobby was a bit generic, I loved that the ornamentation around the stage reflected common symbols from Kazakh culture. The ceiling was also very captivating. The central fixture was a unique mixture of paint and lights.
The opera had five acts and two fifteen-minute intermissions. It got long at times (especially for Ms. Nia) but there were also a lot of highlights too. Opera isn’t my favorite art form, but I do think it’s good to expose oneself to lots of different forms of art.
What really saved the day though was the video screens shown in the photo below. During the opera–which was sung entirely in Kazakh–the screens displayed both Russian and English translations. Not only did it help me understand what was going on, but I got to work on my Russian a bit too!
I know I talk about prices a lot, but I just can’t get over the price differences between the U.S. and here. For example, our fourth row tickets were a mere $8 each. Can you even believe that? Nia asked me if we could try box seats some time and I told her that at this price, we just might be able to. I see a lot of cultural events in our future at those kind of prices…
I would be remiss in not mentioning the costumes, which were traditional Kazakh and truly exceptional. As the women stood on stage to take their bow, it was a literal rainbow of colors blanketing the stage. The backdrops were equally stunning, with multiple dimensions to them.
One fascinating thing I learned was that during the final curtain call, anyone in the audience could walk up and present flowers to a cast member. Kazakhs are big on flowers and I loved how this tradition allowed the audience members to show their appreciation to the artists in a very personal way.
