For the first time, composer Erkegali Rakhmadiev spoke about the idea of the opera “Alpamys” on the pages of the newspaper “Evening Alma-Ata”: “The image of the courageous hero Alpamys was revealed to me by my father. Among the dozens of epics that he knew and performed, Alpamys was for me the most vivid, alive, and visible. Years passed, and the folk epic again captured my imagination. Events of ancient times have always carried within them the highest ideals: defense of the fatherland, struggle for peace and happiness of the people. I wanted to depict and convey in music not only the heroic power of the main character, but also the great, inexhaustible power of the entire people, to create a large heroic-epic canvas.”
The author of the libretto, based on the heroic legend about Alpamys, which is widely used in the oral poetry of the Kazakh people, was People's Artist of the Kazakh SSR Kauken Kenzhetaev. From the many variants of folklore samples, he selected the most significant, important, which would help reveal the multifaceted appearance of the main character. In the musical and scenic composition of the opera, epic features are clearly manifested (the time distance between the event and its reproduction, the rapprochement and collision of the actions and actions of the main characters, the comparison and interweaving of two contrasting worlds - the real earthly one and the fairy-tale-fantastic one, etc.). At the same time, the entire plot action is centered around an integral and strong personality - the people's defender Alpamys .
The premiere of the opera took place on December 26, 1974. Directors-directors - Baigali Dosymzhanov and Vladimir Zhdanov, artist - Gulfairus Ismailova, conductor - Valery Rutter, choirmaster - Bazargali Zhamanbaev, choreographer - Zaur Raybaev. The second edition of the opera in 3 acts and 5 scenes with Prologue and Epilogue takes place on March 5, 1976.
The opera is opened by an akyn storyteller. The dombra accompanying his monologues imparts a leisurely rhythm to the action. The Prologue is especially emotionally filled, in which the suffering Mother Earth hands her son Alpamys a sword, blessing him for feats of arms. The entire musical fabric of the opera is permeated with folk melodies. They are contrasted with bright, figurative and meaningful vocal parts of the opposing characters. Thus, a close-up of the treacherous conqueror Taishik Khan is shown, in whom cruelty organically coexists with cold calculation. His vocal part, with its predominantly recitative intonations, is clearly contrasted with the broad, soft melodicism of Alpamys’s part.
