ATATÜRK CULTURAL CENTRE HIGHLIGHTS
Atatürk Kültür Merkezi* or ‘AKM’, Türk Telekom Opera Hall, Taksim – Beyoğlu, 34437 Istanbul
Events at this venue
bilgi@akmistanbul.gov.tr
Tel: ++90 212 372 50 00
OPERA
November 6–15
Gilgamesh
This opera by the Turkish composer Ahmed Adnan Saygun (1907–91), one of the ‘Turkish Five’ who began composing in the style of Western classical music in the 1920s and 1930s, is based on the Epic of Gilgamesh. This story was first recorded in five Sumerian poems written down in or around 2100 BC; the poems were then used in combination to create an epic in the Akkadian language that dates back to the 18th century BC. Saygun’s opera, composed over the period between 1964 and 1983, brings to the fore the themes of freedom and the transition from an age of unwisdom to one of wisdom, these subjects being treated in a way that brings out the mystical element in the story.
The Istanbul State Opera and Ballet Orchestra will be conducted by İbrahim Yazıcı, the chorus having been trained by Paolo Villa. The opera’s director, meanwhile, will be Caner Akın. The AKM website promises a ‘visual feast’, informing us that the production will be enhanced by visual effects manufactured by technological means.
Thursday November 6: 20:00:
Saturday November 8: 15:00
Saturday November 15: 15:00
Tickets from Biletinial: TL240–TL660
Event website
OPERA
November 22–27
Puccini’s La bohème
La bohème, an opera composed by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) between 1893 and 1895, tells a story of Bohemian life in Paris around 1840. The libretto was based on Scènes de la vie de bohème, a collection of vignettes by the novelist and poet Henri Murger (1822-1861) that focus on the doings of Mimi, a poor seamstress, and her artist friends who do their best to enjoy life in spite of their dire poverty; it ends with her separation from Rodolfo, her lover, and her death. First performed in Torino in 1896 under the baton of the famous conductor Arturo Toscanini, this work has proved to be one of the most frequently-performed operas of all time.
Puccini is regarded as one of the most successful composers of Italian opera, along with Verdi. Most of his 16 operas are still performed today, his aria ‘Nessum dorma’ from Turandot having been sung by Luciano Pavarotti for the BBC television coverage of the Football World Cup held in Italy in 1990. Born in Lucca, Tuscany, Puccini began his musical career as a church organist, subsequently studying at the Milan Conservatory. His most famous operas (apart from La bohème) are Manon Lescaut (1893), Tosca (1900), Madame Butterfly (1904) and Turandot (1926), which he did not quite finish before he died of throat cancer; it was completed by the composer and pianist Franco Alfano (1875-1954). At Puccini’s death, the whole of Italy went into mourning, and Mussolini spoke at his funeral.
In this performance, sung in Italian, the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet Orchestra will be conducted by İbrahim Yazıcı, the chorus having been trained by Paolo Villa and the children’s choir by Sercan Gazeroğlu. The opera’s director, meanwhile, will be Evin Atik.
Saturday November 22: 20:00
Wednesday November 26: 20:00
Thursday November 27: 20:00
Tickets from Biletinial: TL240–TL660
Event website
CHAMBER MUSIC
Sunday November 9
‘From One Shore to the Other’: A Short Break on the Mediterranean
This concert, entitled Akdeniz’de Ufak Bir Mola: Bir Kıyıdan Diğerine (‘A Short Break on the Mediterranean: From One Shore to the Other’) and organised jointly by the Istanbul Opera and Ballet Company and the French Cultural Centre, will consist of works by Schumann, Debussy, Ravel, Dukas and Respighi. Performers will include the French pianists Florence Mouchet and Michel Lehmann plus Kevork Tavityan of the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet company and pianist Hüseyin Kaya.
13:00
Tickets from Biletinial: TL195, TL245, TL300 TL
Event website
OPERATIC ARIAS AND DUETS
Saturday November 15
Türk Telekom Prime Coffee Concert
It is good news indeed that the AKM’s Saturday morning ‘Coffee Concerts’ series has recommenced. In this particular event, which will take place in the foyer of the Türk Telekom Opera Hall’s Balcony No. 2 and is entitled ‘Arias and Duets from the Classical Era to the Romantic’, soprano Beste Aslan and baritone Görkem İbrahim Özcan – two members of the İzmir State Opera and Ballet Company – will perform arias by Puccini, Donizetti, Massenet, Verdi, Bizet, Rachmaninov, Korngold, Mozart and Yalçın Tura.
11:00
Tickets from Biletinial: TL350
Event website
ORCHESTRAL CONCERT/CELLO CONCERTO
Friday November 21
DenizBank Teachers’ Day Concert
In this special concert, organised in honour of Teachers’ Day (celebrated in Turkey on November 24), the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gürer Aykal, will first play Metamorfoz by the Turkish composer and pianist Ali Darmar (1946-). They will then accompany the German cellist Maximilian Horning in Dvořák’s 1894 Cello Concerto in B minor, Opus 104. In the second half, the orchestra will perform Ahmed Adnan Saygun’s four-movement Symphony No 3, Opus 39, a work composed in 1960.
20:00
Tickets from Biletinial: 260 TL, 325 TL
Event website
PIANO RECITAL
Sunday November 23
Sunday Recitals: Senka Simonović
In this all-Liszt recital, entitled Hommage à Liszt, the Serbian pianist Senka Simonović will play the composer’s Liebesträume No3 in A flat major, S. 541; three of his transcriptions of songs by Schubert – Gretchen am Spinnrade (S. 558/8), Auf dem Wasser zu singen (S. 558/2) and *Erlkönig* (S. 558/4); his Piano Sonata in B minor*, S. 178; and his Reminiscences of Lucia di Lammermoor, S. 397. Senka Simonović, who in 2024 taught a master class at Anadolu University, Eskişehir, and gave a recital there in October this year, is (according to her Instagram) currently based in Istanbul. Her website informs us that she graduated from the Novi Sad Academy of Arts in 2007, following which she honed her skills in Paris with the eminent pedagogue Eugen Indjić. Between 2008 and 2024, she taught the piano at the Academy of Arts in Niš.
20:30
Tickets from Biletinial: TL260–TL650
Event website
ORCHESTRAL CONCERT
Friday November 28
Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra DenizBank Concerts: Debussy, Berlioz and R. Strauss
In this, one of the DenizBank Concerts, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sascha Goetzel, will first play Debussy’s 1894 symphonic poem Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (‘Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun’), a piece that revolutionised Western classical music, bringing to it hitherto unheard-of concepts that defied conventional ideas of form. Inspired by a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, this masterpiece of impressionist musical composition later provided the music for a ballet choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky.
Following this, they will perform Les Nuits d’été, a song cycle completed in 1841 by the French composer Hector Berlioz (1803-1869). In this work, a setting of six poems by Théophile Gautier that describe the progress of love from youthful innocence to loss, and finally renewal, the soloist will be Deniz Uzun (mezzo-soprano).
After the interval, the orchestra will play An Alpine Symphony, a tone poem by Richard Strauss (1864-1949). Premiered in 1915, this is one of Strauss’s largest non-operatic works; it depicts the experiences gone through between dawn and nightfall while climbing a mountain in the Alps.
20:00
Tickets from Biletinial: TL260–TL650
Event website
