The cosmopolitan character of the Ottoman empire, the challenges of reimagining classical music and literary texts, and the difficulties of making an opera on a small budget all arise in this conversation between composer Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol and UC Santa Barbara professor Abdulhamit Arvas about Sanlıkol's Turkish coffee house opera Othello in the Seraglio. In this video, Sanlıkol richly describes the complicated creative journey his opera made from its initial conception to completion. Recorded on 02/27/2020. (#35774)