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Be careful not to stop people or you will end by stopping stories...
Giufà is the Sicilian name of Nasr Eddin Hodja, a well known wise man and philosopher who lived in Turkey in the 13th century. He became the principal character of many popular and traditional stories in Asia Minor, and thanks to migration, trade and wars, his stories travelled with the flow of people from Asia Minor to the Balkans, Western Europe and beyond, following the migration routes across the Mediterranean Sea and throughout the Middle East.
He has had many names and many adventures, changing shape and character as he mingled with local cultures, taking on the features of the places he passed through and leaving a piece of himself behind wherever he travelled. Whether wise man or fool Giufà uses words to hold up a mirror to those in power, reflecting back the small injustices that tip the balance against those they should serve. Giufà reminds us of our responsibility to one another and with a smile, shows us how to live better together.
We invite you to follow in the footsteps of Giufà with a new song and story for the 21st century. We offer these as inspiration for your own creativity and hope you will continue his journey by spinning further tales of your own.
Be careful not to stop people or you will end by stopping stories...
Giufà is the Sicilian name of Nasr Eddin Hodja, a well known wise man and philosopher who lived in Turkey in the 13th century. He became the principal character of many popular and traditional stories in Asia Minor, and thanks to migration, trade and wars, his stories travelled with the flow of people from Asia Minor to the Balkans, Western Europe and beyond, following the migration routes across the Mediterranean Sea and throughout the Middle East.
He has had many names and many adventures, changing shape and character as he mingled with local cultures, taking on the features of the places he passed through and leaving a piece of himself behind wherever he travelled. Whether wise man or fool Giufà uses words to hold up a mirror to those in power, reflecting back the small injustices that tip the balance against those they should serve. Giufà reminds us of our responsibility to one another and with a smile, shows us how to live better together.
We invite you to follow in the footsteps of Giufà with a new song and story for the 21st century. We offer these as inspiration for your own creativity and hope you will continue his journey by spinning further tales of your own.
Listen
Song
Look out, look out,
Here he comes,
There he goes,
Moving always with the wind,
He’s coming, be aware.
White or black,
An old man or a child,
Wise or silly,
Here comes the stranger,
Leaving barefoot and with
No more than his only
Art of living:
His journey of survival.
Listen
Story
If you look at it from the Bosphorus, or from the Pillars of Hercules, the Mediterranean Sea looks like a lake. A big one, yet a lake. You see coastlines everywhere. Your sight can never really get lost on a flat horizon. At least not there. You need to go to the high sea if you really want to be at sea. It’s something I discovered the first time I went offshore. No one goes offshore to stay offshore, though, do they?
They told me that under the sea, at the very bottom of it, there’s movement of deep water masses: the cold water doesn’t circulate the same way as the water up here does, because the water up here is warmer. I prefer the surface current. It’s faster. The ocean water comes in from here, Gibraltar, and follows the North African shoreline.
The Algerian current goes towards the Strait of Sicily and Corsica, up to the French coast.
Story
If you look at it from the Bosphorus, or from the Pillars of Hercules, the Mediterranean Sea looks like a lake. A big one, yet a lake. You see coastlines everywhere. Your sight can never really get lost on a flat horizon. At least not there. You need to go to the high sea if you really want to be at sea. It’s something I discovered the first time I went offshore. No one goes offshore to stay offshore, though, do they?
They told me that under the sea, at the very bottom of it, there’s movement of deep water masses: the cold water doesn’t circulate the same way as the water up here does, because the water up here is warmer. I prefer the surface current. It’s faster. The ocean water comes in from here, Gibraltar, and follows the North African shoreline.
The Algerian current goes towards the Strait of Sicily and Corsica, up to the French coast.
The Giufa Project was commissioned by Glyndebourne and has been created in collaboration with Opera Circus and other international partners. The Giufa Project is supported through investment from Glyndebourne’s New Generation Programme which invests significantly in developing new audiences and artists of the future.
