Folk songs get operatic treatment in Mersin
MERSİN - Anatolia News Agency
A folk song composed by Yalçın Özgüngör (L) won the competition with 21 votes.
The Mediterranean province of Mersin is preparing to start the 11th Mersin International Music Festival with Turkish folk songs that will be sung in an operatic style after winning a recent composition competition.The folk songs had managed to reach a wider audience thanks to the competition, festival art director Remiz Buharalı said after the ceremony announcing the winners on April 25. A poll of audiences determined the winner of the competition, which was dubbed “Mersin folk songs seek an opera style.”
The folk song “Pınarbaşı Ben Olayım” won the competition with 21 votes. The song was composed by Yalçın Özgüngör and was
sung by Hasan Alptekin, Zeynep Tatlıpınar Kağnıcı and Işıl Cavga Bölükbaşı from the Mersin State Opera and Ballet.
Özgüngör received 5,000 Turkish Liras for his composition of the folk song. The composer said he participated in the competition with two songs. “I have worked a lot for the other composition. However, I think the composition that reveals emotions took the award.”
Participants in the concert for the competition sang two folk songs by Musa Eroğlu in an operatic style.
The festival aims to bring together opera, ballet and symphonic works, according to organizers.
“From now on, these songs have become a heritage for our culture and wherever they will be sang, they will have a ‘Mersin Music Festival’ sign on them,” Buharalı said, adding that the opera project would open new horizons for the festival while carrying it into a new international arena.
The songs have never been sung with a piano accompaniment or in a different style before, he said, adding that they had never been heard at a national or international singing competition. “Now everyone will have the chance to hear these songs and to hear them performed in a different format. Audiences who follow or attend this festival will have the opportunity to witness a first,” said Buharanlı.
The festival starts April 30 and continues until May 18.
