DIKRAN TCHOUHADJIAN’S OPERA KEUSSE KEHYA

Authors : Anna Grigorievna Asatryan

Pages : 3132-3172

Doi:10.51576/ymd.1761120

View : 96 | Download : 269

Publication Date : 2025-12-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :DIKRAN TCHOUHADJIAN’S OPERA KEUSSE KEHYA The classic of Armenian music, founder of Armenian musical theater, composer, pianist, conductor, pedagogue, musical and public figure Dikran Tchouhadjian (1837-1898) takes a special place in the history of Armenian music. During his lifetime, Tchouhadjian had already become a pan-Oriental phenomenon. He was justly nicknamed “Armenian Verdi” and “Turkey’s Offenbach”. Tchouhadjian was the first among the composers of the East, who, having received a professional musical education and mastered the secrets of the European composing technique to perfection, found ways to bring closer Western and Eastern music cultures, embedded the genres of opera, symphony and chamber music into Eastern culture. Dikran Tchouhadjian is the originator of Near-Eastern musical theater. He put together the Ottoman opera troupe in Constantinople, which was the first such group throughout the Near East. Along with operas by Western European composers, they staged Tchouhadjian’s comic operas Arif, Keusse Kehya, Leblebiji Hor-Hor Agha in the cities across and beyond the Ottoman Empire. Tchouhadjian’s mentioned works were written and produced in Turkish.The goal of our research is, for the first time in Tchouhadjian studies, to present to English-language readers the results of the comprehensive analysis of the opera Keusse Kehya, to substantiate the latter’s genre definition as a comic opera, to shed light on the specific features of its musical language and dramaturgy.
Keywords : Dikran Çuhaciyan, “Köse Kâhya”, Karekin Rışduni, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu, “Ermeni Verdi”, “Türk Offenbach”, Konstantinopolis.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE URL