In her role as Oxford International Song Festival's Associate Composer, RPS Composer Emily Hazrati presents the first of two large-scale works commissioned by Oxford Song - her new song cycle, Book of Queens. Created with writer Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh and inspired by Ferdowsi's Book of Kings, the work will be performed by soprano Soraya Mafi and pianist Ian Tindale.

Soraya Mafi was born to an Iranian father and a second-generation Irish mother, and this concert explores both sides of this heritage. Emily's new work is framed by songs by Schubert, Schumann and Wolf – setting Persian-inspired poetry of Rückert and Goethe and revealing the perfumed notion these Romantic composers and poets had of Persian Culture – in the first half, and in the second a return to the Emerald Isle, with a glorious selection of evocative songs from Stanford to Ina Boyle.

Emily says: "In light of this year’s 'Stories in Song' theme, Nazli and I wanted to draw on our shared Iranian heritage using a historical, narrative reference; Book of Queens emerged from a desire to take characters and stories from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (‘Book of Kings’), the national epic of ancient Persia, and explore these through a contemporary, feminist lens.

Book of Queens is structured in five movements, each telling the story of a different creature or character from the Shahnameh: from the mythological bird Simorgh and mischievous White Demons, to just some of the epic’s many notable queens, princesses and heroines. With music incorporating sounds of the harp, lute, and Persian Daf rhythms, and text blending a Ferdowsi-style register with the contemporary, the piece offers a glimpse into the Shahnameh’s wealth of mythologies and landscapes – highlighting the women and creatures that were central in shaping its development, whilst inviting audiences to consider the global reach of its narratives.

Nazli and I were privileged to view a selection of Shahnameh manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford earlier this year: an experience which profoundly impacted our approach to Book of Queens, with three illuminations particularly resonating when deliberating the work’s form and influences."

Find out more and book for the concert via the button below. 

There will also be a Book of Queens In Conversation event on 21 October, featuring Emily, Nazli and Dominic Parviz Brookshaw (Professor of Persian Literature and Iranian Culture, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford), where the manuscripts and illuminations will be displayed. This will take place at the Weston Library in central Oxford, and you can find out more about it here.