Analysis of Persian Operettas of the Constitutional Era from the Perspective of Glocalizations(Operettas: Rastakhiz'e Shahriaran'e Iran, Parichehr and Parizad, Elahe)

The collision of opera with Iranian musical culture can be considered one of the most important points of intersection between Western and Iranian culture, which took place under the influence of certain political and social developments in Iran. After the Persian Constitutional Revolution, Iran was affected by political, social and cultural changes. Countless changes were made to help Iran's entry into the modern world, in which elites and intellectuals played a significant role. They insisted on bringing the modern form of theatre to the culture of Iran. This is how operetta first entered Iran under the influence of immigrants from northern European countries. The first operettas of the constitutional era were created under the influence of the Caucasian operettas. During several decades of activity in the field of operetta production in Iran, and with the provision of academic education in the field of Western singing in the music conservatory, conditions were created for the production of the first operas in Iran. The coexistence of music and drama was praised by Iranians from the very beginning and prompted many playwrights to create operettas. Since the first operettas in Iran were created with hints of Iranian music and culture, some experts did not consider it correct to use the word operetta for these performances. This essay, based on the theory of glocalization and relying on the descriptive-analytical method based on library documents, has listed some of the effects of Western operas and operettas on the post-constitutional operettas, with the study of three operettas, namely Rastakhiz'e Shahriaran'e Iran, Parichehr and Parizad and finally Elahe. These operetta artists included musical profiles other than Iranian music in their works by using descriptions under the title of "European song and ballet" and using "Western Instruments" and "the songs close to Caucasian and Turkish music", and tried to step closer to the Western operettas. In such a situation, the juxtaposition of Western operetta and Iranian musical culture had effects on each other, which were examined in the article in three stages: exposure, cultural influence, and acculturation. At first, Iranians had a cultural exposure with Western opera by hearing, reading and seeing it. Using the name "operetta" and influences from Western music and song, they advanced to the stage of cultural influence. And since the presence of operetta in Iran did not pose any threat to Iranian music, Iranians did not take a step towards acculturation. As for the results of this article, we can mention the process of producing a kind of glocalized operetta in Iran. Iranians took the title of operetta as one of the successful globalized examples. They combined this globalized musical show with Iranian classical music and singing. Sometimes they used humorous stories appropriate to the society of that time and sometimes they used epic myths and stories from Iranian classical poetry and created a new type of operetta in Iran. It was under these conditions that the glocal type of Persian operettas was born, influenced by the global type of Western operettas.