The action takes place in four scenes in which the passion, despair, and tragedy of Layla’s and Majnun’s history are enacted, and in which four different couples dance the protagonists.

The immediate antecedent to Mark Morris’s Layla and Majnun may date back only a century, to the first Azerbaijani opera, but the story has pervaded the Islamic world, from India to Morocco ...

“Layla and Majnun,” a classic Azerbaijani tale of young lovers and meddling parents, has been compared to “Romeo and Juliet.” In Mark Morris Dance Group’s production, which opened at the ...

tall as a cypress.” His love turns to obsession, however, and his endless songs exalting her praises soon earn him the nickname “Majnun,” or “the madman.” Layla’s father forbids her ...