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1. THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE PERIOD
Reports of representatives to European countries mention the word “opera”
during the Ottoman period. Ambassadors’ frequent mention of “opera” began
to attract attention, and as a result an interest in opera started to
develop at the palace. The first musical play to be staged at the palace
was during the reign of Murat III (1574-1595). One palace clerk noted
that Sultan Selim III (1761-1808), who was also a composer, was influenced
by those reports and invited a foreign company to stage an opera at Topkapi
Palace in 1797.
Reports about opera continued to be written by Ottoman ambassadors
during the 18th and 19th centuries. Italian comanies performed operas
by Verdi at the theatres built in Istanbul following administrative reforms.
The Italian art of opera was taken as a model, and particular advantage
was taken of teachers from Italy, the home of the art. The first important
example was the opera “Ernani’ by the great Italian composer Giuseppe
Verdi (1813-1901), which was performed by an Italian company in Beyoglu
in 1846, seven years after the reforms. Researchers have firmly established
that operas by Verdi were performend in Istanbul between 1846-1877, a
few years after their world premieres in Italy. Posters and newspaper
reports regarding operas performed by Italian companies at Beyoglu theatres
in Istanbul reveal that operas reached a wide audience.
Gaetano Donizetti’s opera “Belisario” was the first to be
translated into Turkish, and was performed in 1840 at the first theatre
built by the Italian architect Bosco. In 1844, that theatre was transferred
to Tütüncüoglu Michael Naum Efendi who served the citizens of Istanbul
for 26 years. The first opera performed at the Naum Efendi Theatre was
Gaetano Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia” in 1844. The theatre burned down
in 1846, and Naum Efendi built a new one where Tokatliyan Ishani stands
today. Sultan Abdülmecit watched his performances.
On account of a second fire at Michael Naum’s theatre on 5
June 1870, and given the political problems of the Ottoman Empire, opera
failed to be taken seriously. Even so, Naum staged plays regularly until
the building burnt down. As the holder of the only licence to stage plays
in foreign languages, he enjoyed a monopoly. Opera groups established
by minorities were also important. Works by Dikran Çuhaciyan, Güllü Agop,
Küçük Ismail and Minakyan are the most important of these. For 38 years
however, from 1885 to 1923 when the empire became a thing of the past,
Turkish polyphonic music and opera were unable to develop.
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2. THE REPUBLICAN PERIOD
 There were no important
musical developments at the time of the declaration of the republic. Influenced
by the musical ideas of Ziya Gökalp, Mustafa Kemal’s (Atatürk) policy
on music was to mould a new music by using Western developed polyphonic
technique fundamentally based on Turkish folk music. Following this principle,
talented young people were sent to Europe for musical training. Young
musicians who returned to Turkey after studying abroad began to have an
effect in the 1930s. The establishment of the Musiki Muallim Mektebi in
Ankara and the Darülelhan in Istanbul, and young lecturers starting to
train students at those establishments, were the first steps taken in
the direction of a hopeful future asa regards opera, composition and performance
levels.
Ahmet Adnan (Saygun) composed the first opera acceptable to
the new republic’s policy on music. Münir Hayri (Egeli) wrote the lyrics
of that opera, named “Özsoy” (or Feridun), which won acceptance from Kemal
Atatürk. “Özsoy” concerned the way that Turks and Iranians were memebrs
of the same race, and was first performed on 19 June 1934 in the presence
of Mustafa Kemal and his official guest the shah of Iran, Riza Pehlevi.
Adnan Saygun’s “Tasbebek” and Necim Kazim Akses’ “Bayönde” followed subsequently.
 The first national
opera performed in Turkey shortly had the expected result, and on Atatürk’s
orders the Ministry of Education began to prepare to establish a state
school of music. First of all, a Fine Arts General Directorate was establsihed
at the ministry.
In 1936, music school classes were initiated with talented
employees chosen from among the students of the Musiki Muallim Mektebi,
which opened in Ankara in 1924. During the 1935/36 academic year, the
famous composer Paul Hindemith and theater director Karl Ebert from Germany
were invited to Ankara. In line with the report that followed their joint
studies, state conservatory classes began to be held at the Musiki Muallim
Mektebi. In the 1935/36 academic term at the state conservatory, theatre
and opera classes had already started, as well as others in all branches
of music. Paul Hindemith declined to accept a permanent post, but visited
Ankara to inspect the music school and report on its activities. Karl
Ebert stayed on in Ankara as agreed and directed the State Conservatory
theater school and opera studio for nine years.
In the beginning, Karl Ebert’s classes at the Ankara State
Conservatory opera studio developed with standard works by arts taken
from the body of international opera and trials with Turkish texts. The
first performance by the students staged was Mozart’s one-act opera Bastien
and Bastienne. This work was performed in Turkish text to the accompaniment
of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, and attracted the attention of
the press of the time. Given this positive development in opera, librettos
in Turkish were experimented with, and in 1940, for the first time in
Turkey, the second act of Madame Butterfly by Puccini was performed in
Turkish by the staff of the opera studio. This was followed in may, 1941,
by the second act of Puccini’s Tosca. These performances were a great
success, and this was reflected in the press. That success was the result
of three years of hard work. Under a law which came into force on May
16, 1940, the State Conservatory classes established and initiated at
the Musiki Muallim Mektebi were officially turned into a State Conservatory
consisting of music, opera, ballet and theatre. As the years passed, Atatürk’s
dream came true. The State Conservatory trained talented composers, musicians,
soloists and ballet dancers.
During 1947 and 1948, the Sergilevi building in Ankara was
transformed into a theatre and opera hall by the famous German architecture
Bonatz. The “Great Theatre” was opened with a ceremony on the night of
Friday April 2,1948. At the opening, pieces of music composed by the “Turkish
Five” were performed. That same night, Ahmet Adan Saygun’s opera “Kerem”
was performed for the first time.
Studies in the context of a particular legal framework began
in 1949. Under that, the Ankara State Opera and Ballet and the Istanbul
State Opera and Ballet which was established under the auspices of that
foundation were aothorised to find the employees they needed from among
State Conservatory graduates.
The opera orchestra and chorus, and the ballet school, were
organized in 1950-53 and those three distinct units were completed at
the same time. The ballet school was first established in Istanbul at
a primary school in Yesilköy with the help of the prima ballerina Dame
Ninette de Valois. After being trained for three years, the first ballet
dancers trained by talented specialists continued their education at the
ballet department at Ankara’s State Conservatory. The first graduates
completed their studies in 1956-1957.
Cevdet Memduh Altar was assigned as general manager in 1951,
after Muhsin Ertugrul the first director of state theatres. Altar consdered
the repertoire and star systems. He also invited important stage artist
from around the world.
When the theatre and the opera were separated in 1958, two
different general directorates were set up. Necil Kazim Akses wasassigned
to the general directorate of the Ankara State Opera and Ballet. In 1959/60
the efforts to assemble an opera company in Istanbul came to a conclusion,
and Aydin Gün established the Istanbul City Opera at the Tepebasi Drama
Theatre. This establishment was nationalised in 1970, and still operates
at the Atatürk Culture Center as the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet Directorate,
linked to the Ankara State Opera and Ballet. After the Istanbul State
Opera and Ballet, the Izmir State Opera and Ballet General Directorate
was established in 1983. The Mersin State Opera and Ballet followed in
1992, and the Antalya State Opera and Ballet in 1999.
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