{"id":6745,"date":"2025-04-01T15:42:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T20:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alzand.com\/?page_id=6745"},"modified":"2026-02-03T09:22:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:22:37","slug":"karim-al-zand-music-al-hakawati","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/alzand.com\/?page_id=6745","title":{"rendered":"Karim Al-Zand: Music: Al Hakawati"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Al Hakawati<\/h2>\n

for soprano & orchestra<\/h4>\n

scenes from an opera<\/i><\/h5>\n

A<\/span>l Hakawati<\/i> (The Storyteller) presents fragments from an opera-in-progress entitled The Book of Tales<\/i>. The opera is inspired by a recent discovery about a beloved story collection: the so-called \u201cArabian Nights.\u201d The exact provenance of these medieval Arabic tales\u2014properly known as Alf Laylah wa-Laylah<\/i> (One Thousand and One Nights)\u2014has always been something of a mystery. That all changed in 1993 when a forgotten 18th century Arabic manuscript was found in the Vatican library. It was a travel memoir written by a 75-year-old Syrian storyteller named Hanna Diyab. It recounts how, as a young man in Antoine Galland’s journal, where he mentions “Hanna from Aleppo” 1707, the young Diyab had embarked on an extraordinary, years-long journey to Europe.

\"\"<\/a>

Antoine Galland’s journal, where he mentions “Hanna from Aleppo”<\/p><\/div>His incredible adventures culminated in a meeting with the Sun King, King Louis XIV, in the halls of Versailles. Diyab told entrancing stories to everyone he met in his travels, including to Antoine Galland, a translator and archaeologist in Paris. It was Galland who, in 1710, first introduced Western readers to the stories of Ali Baba and Aladdin in Les Mille et une Nuits\u2014though Galland makes no mention of Diyab. The storyteller returned to Aleppo in 1709 and eventually became a successful cloth merchant. He seems to have had no idea how far his captivating stories had travelled.<\/p>\n

The opera connects stories and storytellers across time and place: from the present day, to the Ancien R\u00e9gime of France, to the imaginary world of Scheherazade. The fragments in Al Hakawati comprise five \u201cscenes\u201d that feature the opera\u2019s principal female characters.
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1. I shiver, I tremble<\/h5>\n

The famed storyteller Scheherazade contemplates her precarious circumstances: each night she tells stories to the murderous Shahryar to postpone her execution.<\/p>\n

I shiver, I tremble,
\nTrapped in a story of woe.
\nFrightening and violent.
\nBeyond these walls, this sky,
\nAnother storyteller wanders free.
\nI would dance with her, my sister,
\nAs the world shares her stories.
\nA different time, and place,
\nAnother hakawati gathers friends.
\nI would sing with him, my brother,
\nAs the world shares his stories.
\nWorlds interwoven with words and wishes.
\nAnother Scheherazade, from afar.
\nI shiver, I tremble,
\nTrapped in a story of woe.
\nFrightened, but not silent.
\n<\/br><\/p>\n

2. He sleeps, this one<\/h5>\n

Shahryar is finally asleep. Consumed with fury, Scheherazade prepares to set his bed alight.<\/p>\n

He sleeps, this one\u2026
\nSleeps the sleep of cruelest kings,
\nand of wickedness;
\na callous and cold sleep, deep.<\/p>\n

I seethe, inside\u2026
\nSeethe with rage that terror brings,
\nand its bitterness;
\nwith each breath left to breathe, seethe.<\/p>\n

I can no longer weep.
\nThe wound is too deep.
\nSleep! In a burning keep!
\nSleep! Sleep! The righteous flames will leap!
\n<\/br><\/p>\n

3. Dance of the seven swords (orchestra)<\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nMurjana dances for her husband, Ali Baba, and a visiting merchant. She alone has discerned their guest\u2019s true identity: he is Nadir, the leader of a band of thieves. He plans to kill her witless husband, who has foolishly stolen their treasure. At the climax of the dance she dispatches the villain.
\n<\/br><\/br><\/p>\n

4. You and I<\/h5>\n

Murjana thinks of Ali Baba and laments their troubled relationship.<\/p>\n

You and I, we are cast in different molds,
\nMy happiness is tempered with yours:
\nit shines when our elements meld;
\ntogether, an alloy of burnished brass.
\nBut your nature needs no alchemy;
\nforged in a secluded mine, remote,
\nalone, its metal hard and heavy.
\nYou and I, we are cast in different molds,
\nAnd all my deeds, bear your leaden heedlessness;
\nits weight crushes me so that
\nmy soul buckles under your burden.
\n<\/br><\/p>\n

5. For all I know<\/h5>\n

Tarina Safar, a modern-day scholar of medieval Arabic, has discovered Hanna Diyab\u2019s manuscript in the Vatican library. She marvels at the power of stories and of storytellers.* <\/p>\n

For all I know,
\na story has wings, that it might soar\u2014
\nfledged in a mind,
\nflying from our lips,
\nflocking to eager ears,
\nto open our dreaming eyes\u2014
\nhoming to our hearts.
\nSwirling stories\u2014in droves they take a murmuring shape,
\nin forms that scrape the drawn dawn\u2014
\ntracing a truth in the sky.<\/p>\n

\n
\u062d\u0643\u0648\u0627\u062a\u064a \u0631\u0627\u0648\u064a \u0627\u0644\u0642\u0635\u0635
\n\u0646\u0628\u064a \u0627\u0644\u0634\u0639\u0628
\n\u0644\u0639\u0646\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0644\u0648\u0643
\n\u062d\u0643\u0648\u0627\u062a\u064a \u062d\u0643\u0648\u0627\u062a\u064a
\n\u0627\u0634\u0631\u062d \u0644\u0646\u0627 \u062d\u0643\u0645\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0627\u0634\u064a\u0627\u0621<\/div>\n
[Hakawati, teller of tales: the people\u2019s prophet, the curse of kings. Hakawati, Hakawati! Show us the wisdom of things!]<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For all I know,
\na tale is a pilgrim, that it might journey\u2014
\nmigrating from world to world,
\nmessage in its satchel,
\nmoving through ages,
\narriving here\u2014
\nto camp in our hearts.
\nTraveling tales\u2014a caravan with load of amber,
\nflutes and tambour the dawn down\u2014
\nleaving lessons in the sand.<\/p>\n

Hakawati, teller of tales:
\nthe people\u2019s prophet,
\nthe curse of kings.
\nHakawati, Hakawati!
\nShow us the wisdom of things!
\n<\/br><\/p>\n

*Safar\u2019s character is fictional, but she is inspired by the American scholar of Islam, Nabia Abbott (1897\u20131981), the first female professor at the University of Chicago\u2019s Oriental Institute. Abbott did some of the earliest research into the origins of the Thousand and One Nights.<\/em><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n

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purchase score & parts<\/span><\/h4> <\/span>Learn More<\/span><\/a> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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DATE
\n2024<\/br><\/br><\/p>\n

DURATION
\n24 minutes<\/br><\/br><\/p>\n

COMMISSION
\nCo-commission of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, WDR Sinfonieorchester K\u00f6ln and Orchestre National de France<\/br><\/br><\/p>\n

INSTRUMENTATION
\norchestra:<\/strong> winds: 3*3*3*3* brass: 4441 | 4 percussion | timpani | harp | strings <\/br><\/br><\/p>\n

MOVEMENTS
\n1. I shiver, I tremble
\n2. He sleeps, this one
\n3. Dance of the seven swords
\n3. You and I
\n5. For all I know<\/br><\/br><\/p>\n

PREMI\u00c8RE
\nAugust 2, 2024, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra; Santa Cruz, CA; September 21, 2024, Cologne, Germany; WDR Sinfonieorchester K\u00f6ln; Cristian M\u0103celaru, cond; Miriam Khalil, sop.<\/br><\/br><\/p>\n

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AUDIO\/VIDEO<\/p>\n