From the 1950s to the 1970s, Iran’s performing arts scene flourished, culminating in the construction of Roudaki Hall—a grand national opera and ballet house in Tehran, modeled after the Vienna State Opera. Designed by Eugene Aftandilian and completed in 1967, it featured cutting-edge stage technology, elegant architecture, and hosted both Iranian and international artists. Under the direction of Nejad Ahmadzadeh, it became home to the Tehran Symphony Orchestra, the Tehran Opera Orchestra, and the Iranian National Ballet, symbolizing the cultural vitality of late Pahlavi Iran.

Following the 1979 theocratic anti-enlightenment Islamic Revolution, Roudaki Hall was renamed Vahdat (Unity) Hall, and opera and ballet were abolished in line with the new regime’s ideological restrictions. Despite this, it continues to serve as Iran’s leading performance venue for traditional music and theater.

Against this historical backdrop unfolds the novel Silence in the Tehran Opera House (originally The Silent Opera at Rudaki Hall, 2023). The award-winning work, now available in an uncensored English translation, intertwines the lives of three characters—a rural youth seeking opportunity, an aspiring opera singer who studies in Paris, and a diplomat entangled in politics. Their stories converge within the opera house as the 1979 revolution transforms a hub of creativity into a site of silence and repression.

Blending love, art, and political tragedy, the novel portrays the destruction of Iran’s artistic spirit under authoritarian rule, while celebrating the enduring resilience of those who refuse to let beauty and imagination die.