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Samsun State Opera and Ballet brought the two-act ballet “Piri Reis” to audiences at the Ataturk Culture Center’s Aydin Gun Stage in Samsun, Türkiye, highlighting the life of the Ottoman navigator and cartographer Muhyiddin Piri Bey and drawing steady interest from spectators.
The work focuses on Piri Reis—known for traveling the world with his uncle Kemal Reis and later serving in the Ottoman fleet with support from senior pashas—while it weaves together episodes from his journeys into a continuous stage narrative.
First premiered in 2014 by Mersin State Opera and Ballet, the ballet features music by Can Atilla, with choreography and libretto by Armagan Davran and Volkan Ersoy.
In Samsun, the staging was led by Gorkem Cengiz, with sets by Savas Camgoz, costumes by Gulay Korkut, video projection by Ahmet Seren, and lighting design by Oguz Murat Yilmaz.
The production involved around 80 artists and technicians, bringing the story to life with coordinated stagecraft.
Piri Reis, who lived in the 15th century, became renowned for world maps that also depicted the Americas and for the “Kitab-i Bahriye” (Book of Seamanship), a detailed work on navigation.
Beyond charting coastlines and routes, his writings described the cultural fabric of the places he visited, offering insight into the era’s cultural geography.
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