Seven Beauties

Seven Beauties is an Azerbaijani ballet composed by Gara Garayev in 1947–48 to mark the 800th anniversary of classical Persians/Azerbaijani's.His creative activity has strong bound with Azerbaijan literature and culture poet Nizami Ganjavi. Set in the 12th century, the libretto by I. Hidayetzade, Yuri Slonimsky and Sabit Rahman is based on motifs from Ganjavi’s Seven beauties poem, written in 1197. Background The first staging of the ballet was held on November 7, 1952, in the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Baku. National instruments were used in orchestration of the ballet, which give it a national tint. In 2008, a new staging of the ballet was held on the stage of the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theater. Famous Russian choreographer Vasiliy Medvedev became its chief ballet master. Yana Temiz – a writer from Turkey wrote a new libretto for staging. Elshad Bagirov who worked at the Bolshoi Theatre and was a conductor at the Opera and Ballet Theater of Istanbul, became the manager and conductor of the staging. Artist of the Bolshoi Theater Dmitriy Cherbadji worked on decorations and Tahir Salahov on costumes.