/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in Baku will host the premiere of a new staging of “Love and Death” ballet on February 3.

The premiere is to be dedicated to the 70^th birthday anniversary of Polad Bulbuloglu, an Azerbaijani people’s artist and diplomat.

The ballet was first staged in Baku in 2005. The producer of the ballet was professor of the Vienna European Academy of Ballet, Vakil Usmanov, the art director - Azerbaijan’s People's Artist Rafis Ismailov.

The ballet "Love and Death" deals with eternal issues of destiny, life and death, love, friendship and betrayal.

The ballet can be seen as a true saga and musical paraphrase of eternal life book titled "Dede Gorgud". This is a play about undying love and powerlessness of death before feats of heroes.

In 2005 it was staged at the St. Petersburg Mariinsky State Academic Opera and Ballet, as well as in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre. In 2010, at the initiative of the Russian choreographer, Nadejda Maligina "Love and Death" ballet was staged at the Ekaterinburg State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. In 2011, the ballet was staged at the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, as well as in the capital of Turkey - Ankara by the Ekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theatre’s ballet troupe.

Musical excerpts from this ballet are annually performed by the Symphony Orchestra of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre on Bavaria Festival Opera Festival in Germany.

Every time, this music raises endless applause and shouts of "Bravo!" in German public. German media broadcasting the festival repeatedly noted the melody and special beauty of Bulbuloglu’s music.

Nadejda Maligina is a choreographer of the current production of the ballet "Love and Death". Art director is a well-known Russian artist Dmitry Cherbadji. The play will be conducted by People's Artist of Azerbaijan, professor Javanshir Jafarov.

Bulbuloglu became famous in the whole Soviet Union with composing jazz-influenced pop songs with deep folk feelings in Azerbaijani and Russian. His father was Bulbul, a famous Azeri opera singer who exposed Polad to musical culture from an early age.

He also sang his own songs. Three of his songs became Song of the Year and he received numerous prestigious awards in the Soviet Union. Bulbuloglu is a lyrical tenor.

In the 1990s, despite having a huge success with a new version of his old song G?l Ey S?h?r(Come, Hey Morning!) in Turkey and sold out concerts in Russia, Bulbuloglu started a political career. He became the Azerbaijani Culture Minister and is currently the Azerbaijani ambassador to Russia.