Behzad Abdi's opera Rumi fuses traditional dastgah (the Iranian modal system) and the Persian Sama dance with Western classical music, and can be considered the first national opera of Iran. The libretto was written and conceived by the renowned Iranian theatre director and puppeteer, Behrouz Gharibpour, based on the life and writings of the 13th-century Persian scholar, poet, theologian and mystic, Jalal al-Din Rumi. The legendary story of Shams and Rumi is one of the most significant tales in the history of Iranian mystical literature and is brought vividly to life by the award-winning composer's exotic, lyrical and at times intensely dramatic score. Behzad Abdi (b. 1973) studied the setar and Iranian traditional music with Masoud Shoari and Mohsen Nafar and Western classical music with Liudmila Yurina and Vadim Juravitsky at the Tchaikovsky Academy in Ukraine. Abdi is the first composer to write Iranian opera. He is also a composer of film soundtracks and has won two awards at the Fajr International Iranian Film Festival, among others.