Istanbul State Opera and Ballet ready for further performances of 'Faust'

The Istanbul State Opera and Ballet (İDOB) has staging Goethe's "Faust" since Feb. 14 and opera tickets have sold out for each performance as interest in the opera is surprisingly high. Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), İDOB Director Kevork Tavityan said that the "Faust" opera will stay on stage as long as it has an audience. "Opera and ballet are not hollow art forms that go unseen in Turkey. We have a 'Faust' performance on March 29. We are thinking about adding some other plays in late May," said Tavityan.

Discussing performances slated for April and May and stressing the keen interest received from audience members, Tavityan said: "There is an intense interest from the audience and our cast brings out a full house. We have a website where we sell tickets online. The sold-out plays are displayed in bright red colors. The page is almost always red, which is a great source of pride for us, and I must say that we have a salon with capacity for 500 to 550 people."

"We would like to test ourselves to see if we can give the same performance in the salons of 1,000-guest seating capacity. We tested ourselves, more or less, when the Atatürk Culture Center (AKM) was open. The center had a capacity for 300 people and we were filling the entire salon for each play, even if it was not a full house."

Discussing the soon-to-open Emek Cinema, Kevork Tavityan said that current talks are ongoing albeit uncertain, and they would like to perform a concert, ballet or play on a Beyoğlu stage.

Noting that it is difficult for those living on Istanbul's European side to visit the Süreyya Opera in Kadıköy, Tavityan said: "It is difficult for the audience because if the play ends at around 11 p.m., it is a big problem to go back to the European side after that. There may be people who do not own a car, so this may be difficult. If the Emek Cinema is opened, it will be great. A huge salon on the European side will be great, but when big salons are built, they do not always have the necessary conditions for opera. The stages are built, but what should be added to the right or to the left -they do not consider the areas for the scenes to come and go. Yes, what is seen is pretty elegant, but not functional. You look at it as the audience and see a beautiful stage but we want to see big openings on the right, left and back sides so that we can put scenery and make sudden scene changes." Tavityan said that 70 to 80 people have worked on stage at some events. "We nearly used the entire chorus of the Kadıköy Süreyya Opera for Faust, which is a team of approximately 85 to 90 people. We managed to place them on that tiny stage. The play has 5 or 6 vocalists. We tried to keep the orchestra as wide as possible, but it is not valid for every stage. The scenery need to be changed and transformed really fast. These are the biggest handicaps for other stages," Tavityan added.

Tatviyan added that the Modern Dance Theater of Istanbul Stage Opera and Ballet would stage plays entitled "City Forest" and "Ezel Baharis" and added: "We also have a ballet titled 'Le Corsaire' which was widely acclaimed. It is a magnificent classical ballet for people who love classical ballet and long for it. Later, there will be 'La Traviata' followed by a spring concert on April 22 and 23. It will be a colorful, entertaining and beautiful program."

Touching on April 29 when International Dance Day will be celebrated, Tavityan said that they were planning to stage the works of seven young choreographers set to music from Bach.