Kyz Zhibek

If you wish to create something new…
Take but a glance at the past.
Set out the road to journey through…
Look upon the start, hold it fast.

The swan-geese take their flight today,
Farewell, farewell, my tender swans, away!

Within my chest, a saga rests,
Written by a swan on sacred breasts.

Forgive me, swans, I’ve done you wrong!
I watch your caravan, weary, long.
I lost my way amid your flight,
My strength and frailty clash in might.

Your wings, when beating with a cry,
Could not reach the patience in my sigh.

For paths you left, my black-eyed friends,
I wove my broken gaze to ends.

The fair ones on the lake’s wide breast,
Lie waiting, yet I cannot rest.
Why was I not born a swan, so free?
As a human, I am lost in me.

(c) Mukagali Makatayev

The opera genre emerged in Kazakhstan in the 1930s. In 1934, the first Kazakh opera, Kyz Zhibek, was staged as a dramatic opera. Nearly a century later, we are proud to present our nation’s gem, Kyz Zhibek, once again to audiences in the form of a dramatic opera.
If you wish to create something new, return to the past. To the very point where it all began…