Enchanted beginnings

On Saturday afternoons back in the Fifties when I was very young, maybe 5 or 6 years old, I could be found watching old movies on television (in those Dark Ages before cable[1]) while my mother worked on sewing projects and my younger siblings napped. Like many others in the New York metropolitan area I watched the series called Million Dollar Movie*. At that time the movies aired dated back to the late 1920’s-early 30’s, and among those that made a great impression was The Thief of Bagdad, a 1924 American silent adventure film starring Douglas Fairbanks.

Fairbanks’ biographer wrote “An epic romantic fantasy-adventure inspired by several of the Arabian Nights tales, The Thief of Bagdad is the greatest artistic triumph of Fairbanks’s career. The superb visual design, spectacle, imaginative splendor, and visual effects, along with his bravura performance (leading a cast of literally thousands), all contribute to making this his masterpiece.” [2]

My mother often read to me at bedtime and among my favorites was One Thousand and One Nights (aka Arabian Nights), the story of a clever woman named Scheherazade whose narrative binds together 1,001 stories.* These stories represent a collection of folktales in the Arabic language dating back to 8^th-13^th Century, often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English-language edition (c. 1706–1721).[3]

These stories were fantastic tales set in far away lands and they ignited my imagination. Combined with the adventurous movie staring Fairbanks, early seeds were planted of fantastical magical experiences.

I was in my late teens when I first heard the intoxicating melodies and hypnotic rhythms of Egyptian music and I was flooded with the memories of exotic images that had been imbedded in my mind from my youth. The music enchanted me and I was transported to an imaginary world where Aladdin himself invited me to tour the world on his magic carpet. I imagined I was alongside Ali Baba and his brother Cassim as they stood in front of the forty thieves’ cave sealed by a huge boulder. Together we spoke the magic words “open sesame” that moved the boulder from the mouth of the cave to reveal splendid treasures!

This stirring of my imagination led me to intently pursue investigating these rhythms and melodies. Little did I know then that pursuit would become a 50+ year career!

PS FULL CIRCLE MOMENT: In 1999 I was invited to appear on stage in Lehigh University Zoellner Arts Center’s Baker Hall to narrate an introduction to the 1001 Nights, Tales of Scherezade as the opening to the Lehigh University Philharmonic Orchestra performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade Op.35.

Prior to the orchestra performance, I was also asked to present a pre-concert “curtain warmer” ~ a summation of 1001 Nights, Tales of Scherezade to enhance the audience’s experience of listening to the symphony.

Following the curtain warmer, the moment came to step on stage dressed as a courtier of an ancient royal Persian court & join the full orchestra poised to make music. I literally felt like I floated through the ensemble patiently holding their instruments to begin upon the maestro’s command. I greeted the audience in the concert hall and narrated a brief tale before the lilting melodies of the symphony inspired our imaginations conjuring the enchanted Tales of Scherezade.

Conductor Paul Chou had this to say,

Tahya graced the stage with her elegance and wonderful sense of style .

Thank you Maestro Chou; what an honor! It was a purely magical night for me!

[2]Vance, Jeffrey (2008). Douglas Fairbanks. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, p. 153

[3] Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights