Kadim Al Sahir - Gilgamesh, The Upcoming Project Event

Gilgamesh, The Upcoming Project Event

After more than a decade of composing and performing love songs, As-Saher's ambition is taking him to opera. "I want to do the Epic of Gilgamesh," he states enthusiastically. "It's going to be very difficult; it will take three years at least. I want to do it right, and I want it to be modern and contemporary." Difficult seems a mild description of such a grand work. This, after all, is one of the greatest and most ancient epics of humanity. The Epic of Gilgamesh, the renowned king of Uruk in Mesopotamia, miraculously preserved on clay tablets deciphered only in the last century, tells of his long and arduous journey to the Spring of Youth, of his encounters with monsters and gods and of his friendship with Enkidu, the wild man from the hills. As a mixture of pure adventure, morality and tragedy, the story of Gilgamesh and his futile search for immortality transcends the barriers of time, for it revolves around fundamental forces and human problems common throughout the centuries. Why Gilgamesh? "As children in school, it was the tradition to watch it annually at the theatre," he says, "I loved it." The arduous task of modernizing the epic, he explains, has been delegated to his career mate Iraqi poet Kareem Al-'Iraqi. The surprise, however, is that As-Saher will not necessarily play the character of Gilgamesh. "There will be a large number of professional singers in this opera or musical, so I don't necessarily have to play the lead." In his recent interviews, Kazem states that he already finished composing this two-hour epic written by Kareem Al-'Iraqi and he entrusted musical arrangement to his career mate Iraqi arranger Dr. Fathullah Ahmad and a renowned Italian arranger along with a special arranger for chorus. Kazem thinks of introducing it as two-part musical in Hollywood to be directed by two directors, one English and the other Iraqi along with an Iraqi artistic advisor.