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ORIGINS / director’s cut final scene OPENING CEREMONY FIRST EUROPEAN GAMES conceived, visualised and directed by DIMITRIS PAPAIOANNOU Baku 2015 --- the final fifteen minutes that lit the fire of the first European Games on 12 June 2015 in Baku a story created with the ingredients of Azerbaijan, land of FIRE an iconic Azerbaijani CARPET the sound of MUGHAM the mud volcanoes that make vast CRACKED EARTH landscapes a SEMENI plate with green sprouting wheat, symbol of NOVRUZ, a festival rooted in ZOROASTRIANISM that celebrates spring and rebirth FIRE MOUNTAIN (YANAR DAG), where eternal fires burn from the ground prehistoric PETROGLYPHS — among the earliest images created by humans — carved into the rocks at GOBUSTAN the CASPIAN sea a traditional MALE DANCE the story of LEYLI & MAJNUN, a legendary unfulfilled love from the epic poem by NIZAMI where Majnun becomes a “holy fool”, a hermit on a MOUNTAIN who envisions the image of Leyli as the manifestation of the divine featuring mugham legend ALIM QASIMOV orchestral scores by Azerbaijan’s great composers GARA GARAYEV and FIKRET AMIROV and the theme from the traditional song SARI GELIN this is the story of an epic wedding of FEMALE and MALE forces the perfect alignment of the MOON and SUN to create an ECLIPSE like the one seen over EUROPE on the first day of Novruz in 2015 --- with ALIM QASIMOV mugham legend NARGIZ NASIRZADA woman AYDAMIR AYDAMIROV man and over 1750 volunteer performers from Azerbaijan orchestral score by GARA GARAYEV FIKRET AMIROV traditional music “Sari Gelin“ song “Yalli“ dance mugham poetry written specially by KHOSRO SARTIPI --- ORIGINS storyboard artwork by DIMITRIS PAPAIOANNOU download the PDF () here: --- ORIGINS (2015) conceived, visualised and directed by DIMITRIS PAPAIOANNOU TEODOR CURRENTZIS & VANGELINO CURRENTZIS music directors THANASSIS DEMIRIS & EVA MANIDAKI production designers ROBERT A. DICKINSON lighting designer YASHI costume designer ERIC TUCKER pyrotechnic designer NIKOS LAGOUSAKOS male dance & yalli choreographer TINA PAPANIKOLAOU associate artistic director STEPHANOS DROUSSIOTIS artistic associate & music script KYRIACOS KARSERAS artistic associate & texts CATHERINE UGWU director of ceremonies NICK ELTIS senior technical director SCOTT GIVENS executive producer video edited by DIMITRIS PAPAIOANNOU with footage from show night and two dress rehearsals directed for television by GREG BREAKELL ---
