World-famous Armenian tenor Gegham Grigoryan dies

Gegham Grigoryan, a prominent Armenian opera singer, stage manager and art director of the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, died Wednesday aged 65.

Worldwide tenor Gegham Grigoryan was born on 29 of January 1951.

He graduated from Yerevan State Conservatory after Komitas the class of Armenian National artist,

Professor Sergey Danielyan. Grigoryan. He first appeared on stage in 1971, being 20 years old, in 1972 travelled to Western Berlin with a solo concert. He debuted on the stage of A. Spendiarian National academic theatre of Opera and Ballet in 1975 with Edgar’s vocal in Donizetti’s opera “Lucia de Lammermoor”. After that there were the roles of Saro (in “Anoush” by Tigranyan), Tirit (in “Arshak II” by Chukhajyan), Sayat Nova (in “Sayat Nova” by Harutyunyan), Count Almaviva (in “Seville barber” by Rossini), Faust (in “Faust” by Gounod).

By the 1970s he was already a well-known singer in post-Soviet countries. In 1978 he participated in Art Refinement school (Scuola di Perfizionamento Artistico) competition in the theatre «La Scala» of Milano and is among the 4 lucky young gpeople to continue his refinement in this school. During his education in Italy he participated in several concerts.  In «La Scala» Grigoryan debuted playing the role of Pinkerton (in «Madame Butterfly» by Puccini). After this performance he signs a contract with «La Scala» on performing «Boris Godunov» and «Toska» operas. Alas, the soviet government prohibited him to perform there and on the whole they do not allow him to leave the Soviet territory for approximately 10 years.

In 1980 he was invited to Lithuania by the director and artistic director of the Opera Theatre of Lithuania Virgilijus Noreika to work there. In Vilnius he worked with renowned conductor Jonas Aleksa, singing in “Eugene Onegin”, “Don Carlos”, “Boris Godunov”, “Traviata”,  “Madame Butterfly”, “Rigoletto” and in many other operas. Since 1989 by the invitation of Valeriy Gegiev Grigoryan is the leading soloist in Mariinsky Theatre.

Here Grigoryan enjoyed big success. At that time the Mariinsky Theatre was just starting to firm its position and Gegham Grigoryan had his huge impact in the organization and development of the theatre’s soloists’ company, what is always being recalled and appreciated by the head conductor and director of the Theatre Valeriy Gergiev. Until now Gegham Grigoryan’s beautiful and dramatic voice and marvelous performances are being recalled by the whole city of St.- Petersburg and throughout Russian Federation.
In 1990 Gegham Grigoryan was allowed to enter the world arena. This phase of Grigroyan’s career took its roots from his debut in“Concertgabouw” in Amsterdam. In 1993 he debuted in Covent Garden with the vocal of Lenskiy (from “Eugene Onegin” by Tchaikovsky”), and in 1995 in Metropolitan Opera – with the vocal of Herman (from “Queen of Spades” by Tchaikovsky).

Grigroyan has sung in all worldwide famous opera theatres and concert-halls:

Covent Garden (“Mazeppa”, “Eugene Onegin”), Metropolitan Opera (“Queen of spades”, “Aida”, “War and Peace”, “The Masked Ball”, “Prince Igor”, “Cavelleria Rusticana”, “Toska”), La Scala(“Madame Butterfly”,  “The force of destiny”, “Boris Godunov”, “Khovanshchina”, “The queen of spades”, “War and Peace”),  Teatro Colon Buenos Aires (“Fedora”, “Pagliacci”, “The cloak”, “Norma”),Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma (“Norma”, “Aida”, “The Masked Ball”, “Bohemia”, etc.), Berlin Staatsoper (“Prince Igor”, “Aida”, “The Troubadour”, “The Queen of Spades”).

Grigoryan has sung in New York, Washington, Tokyo, Paris, Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam, Monte Carlo, Geneva, Florence, Japan, etc.

Since 1990 Grigoryan has been a permanent invitee to participate in numerous significant festivals: “Choregies d’Orange” (Orange, France), Summer Opera Season at the Baths of Caracalla (Teatro Dell’ Opera) (Rome, Italy), Ravenna Festival (Ravenna, Italy), Savonlinna Opera Festival (Savonlinna, Finland), Festival Del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence, Italy), Puccini Festival ( Tore de Lago, Italy), Salzburg Festiva (Germany), etc. In 1989-96 was a member of the Tours Festival (France) art directors’ committee.
By the order of Philips Classics Records, Gegham Grigoryan has recorded in the following operas:
“War and Peace” by Prokofiev, “The Queen of spades” and “Iolanta” by Tchaikovsky, “Prince Igor” by Borodin, “Sadko” by Rimsky-Korsakov, “The force of destiny” by Verdi.

He acted in film-operas, such as “The Queen of Spades” (St.- Petersburg, “Mariinsky” theatre), “War and Peace” ( two productions – Mariinsky Theatre and Covent Garden, director – Grenvik, and Mariinsky, Metropolitan, La Scala, director – Kanchalovskiy), “Sadko”, “The force of destiny”, as well as “Almast” and “Norma”.

Grigroyan was declared as one of the best tenors of 20th century, and this list is lead by legendary Enrico Caruzo, Benimino Gigli, Franco Corelli.

He has performed all the most difficult parts composed for tenors (“Rigoletto” – 208 performances, “Aida” – 70 performances). He has collaborated with the most outstanding figures of the classical music, who have developed the history of classical music of 20-21stcenturies: Gyaurov, Mirella Freni, Leontyne Price, Grace Bumbry, Ghena Dimitrova, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Luis, Levine, Bartholetti, Svetlanov, Richter. Directors: Grenvik, Kanchalovksi, Zeffirelli, Del Monaco and many others.

In year 2000 the president of the Republic of Armenia R. Kocharyan invited him to be the art director at the Armenian National Academic theatre of opera and ballet after A. Spendiarian. He conducted the theatre in this position until year 2007. During that years as a director  Geghamyan staged in the theatre “Traviata” by Verdi, operas of Armenian composers, such as “Anoush” and “Davit Bek” by Tigranyan, “Arshak II” by Chukhujyan. The invited directors staged “Carmen”, “Norma”, “Aleko”, “The Troubadour” operas, and others. Concert performances were held, such as: “Iolanta” by Tchaikovsky, “Magic flute” and “Don Juan” by Mozart, “Tigran the Great” by Vivaldi. Ballets: Aram Khachaturian’s “Gayane”, “Eternity”, “St. Hripsime and Trdat” by Maviskalyan-Tchgnavoryan, Schedrin’s “Carmen Suite”, with the participation of the theatre company, Bellini’s film-opera “Norma” was filmed (director – Boris Hayrapetyan, Russia).
Gegham Grigoryan is a professor in Yerevan State Conservatory after Komitas, he has students from different parts of the world: Armenia, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Georgia, USA, Canada, Syria, etc.