Mamedov, Mekhti Asadulla Ogly

Born May 22, 1918, in Shusha. Soviet Azerbaijani stage director and actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1974); doctor of art studies (1968). Member of the CPSU since 1956.

Mamedov graduated from the department of stage direction of the State Institute of Theatrical Arts in 1941. He was a stage director at the Kirovabad Drama Theater and principal stage director at the Azizbekov Azerbaijan Drama Theater (1960–63) and the Akhundov Azerbaijan Theater of Opera and Ballet (1956–60).

Mamedov’s productions included Dzhabarly’s Bride of the Fire (1942), Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (1946), and a dramatization of Fadeev’s The Young Guard (1948). He also acted in several of his productions, for example, L. N. Tolstoy’s The Living Corpse (1968), in which he played Protasov, and Gorky’s Smug Citizens (1975), in which he played Teterev. He has also staged operas, including Amirov’s Seville (1953), Delibes’s Lakmé (1957), and Gadzhibekov’s Leili and Medzhnun (1976).

Mamedov is the author of works on art theory and aesthetics. He joined the teaching staff at the Azerbaijan Theatrical Institute in 1946, becoming professor in 1960, and taught at the University of Azerbaijan from 1963 to 1970. He has been awarded three orders and several medals.