Rashid Behbudov - Song Theater

Song Theater

It was Rashid's dream to create a place in Azerbaijan specifically designated as a Song Theater. Prior to the Soviet occupation, Baku already had an Opera and Ballet Theater, a Philharmonic Hall, a Comedy Theater and various other buildings dedicated to various genres of music, but nowhere was there a home for the genre of popular music.

Behbudov was already an established musician when he decided to undertake this project. He envisioned each song as a mini-spectacle with its own heroes, theme and development and he went in search of a worthy setting where the dramatic aspects of these popular songs could be dramatically presented. Creating the Song Theater became a pet project for him. He was very proud of it and spent a great deal of energy, anxiety and time on the conversion of a pre-Soviet Jewish synagogue into the Song Theater. Simultaneously, he worked on creating a professional music group that would be associated with the theater.

But in the spring of 1989, all these projects soon came to an end. The theater was preparing a new program for the Noruz holidays (the Spring Solstice on March 21 celebrating the New Year). Rashid looked fine despite his age of 73. His voice was still so strong and beautiful. But suddenly, during one of the practices, he took ill.

With great difficulty, his friends managed to get him to Moscow to the Kuntsevo Hospital, which was considered the best hospital in the Soviet Union at the time. Doctors struggled to save him. But it was too late. Rashid Behbudov was dying from kidney disease. Sadly, he was so far from home. Until the last minute, he kept expecting the door to open and friends to walk in. Every time the door opened, he would ask, "Have my dear friends come to visit me?"

Rashid was hoping that some of those who were attending the sessions of the Supreme Soviet in the Kremlin would drop by his hospital room. But during those days prior to Azerbaijan's independence (1991), an enormous struggle was going on in the Soviet Union. Those were difficult days for Azerbaijan. Friends were occupied with other things. Only Jeyran Khanum, his wife, stayed by his side in the hospital.

In one of his last letters written from the hospital, he wrote with great optimism, "My dear ones, my boisterous loyal friends! We will soon be together. It will be necessary to work by yourselves during this interim. You'll have to work hard. Please know that your loyalty to the theater and to art is the best medicine for me." But Rashid did not recover, he was too ill, and on June 9, he died.