Tale Of Taher And Zohre, The (Iran/Khorassan)

Tâher and Zohre are cousins, born with the help of God. Promised to each other by their fathers, they are raised as brother and sister. But Tâher discovers the truth before they reach the age of marriage and their ensuing early passion is condemned by Zohre's father, the Sultan. From then on, the lovers will fight every obstacle to be reunited, a goal reached only with the death of the Sultan. This tale, a "dâstân" largely spread in the Middle East and rich in local and personal variations, is here interpreted by Rowshan Golafruz, a ninth-generation "bakhshi" (bard) from Khorassan, a region of Iran sharing borders with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. The "dâstân" is a form of traditional storytelling. Narrated chapters of the tale alternate with songs expressing the feelings of the characters (especially when it comes to love, devotion, or despair). The singer accompanies himself on the dotâr, a two-string lute. Golafruz's performance, recorded at the Festival de l'Imaginaire in March 2003, lasts 95 minutes, but rarely gets tiresome. His playing is rather repetitive (the genre is guided by the reiteration of musical clichés acting as narrative articulations), but his singing and storytelling are rich in expression. Like an actor in a Greek drama, Golafruz pushes every feeling, every situation to its pathetic end, adding animal calls and stunning vocalises to retain his listener's attention. The booklet is rich in contextual and historical information, and contains English and French translations of all the texts and lyrics spoken and sung in Turkish and Persian. Another outstanding production from Inédit. ~ François Couture|