ONSTAGE DAZZLEMENT; DRAMATIC INSTINCTS HELP SOPRANO SCORE MAJOR ROLES
by Bob Clark
The Calgary Herald
March 26, 2009 Thursday
Alberta
Only nine years after vaulting into prominence by taking first
prize in the Operalia competition (The World Opera Competition,
founded by Placido Domingo), the young Armenian-Canadian soprano
Isabel Bayrakdarian already has a career that most classical singers
can only dream about. Time magazine hailed her exceptional musical
ability and stage presence by describing her as "a soprano voice that
combines lyricism with remarkable dramatic instincts."
Bayrakdarian has sung major roles at the Met, the Salzburg Festival,
the Saito Kinen Festival (under Seiji Ozawa), Covent Garden, Houston
Grand Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She was also heard by
millions on the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,
and has won four Junos–the most recent for her CD of Mozart arias
and duets, with fellow Canadians Russell Braun and Michael Schade.
The Toronto-based singer has expanded her impressive discography into
the pop realm, as well, appearing as guest soloist with the Canadian
band Delerium on its 2007 Grammy nominated dance remix, Angelicus.
Hear Bayrakdarian in recital tonight at the Rozsa Centre in the
Millennium Music Foundation’s 11th season finale, An Evening of Opera
Favorites, accompanied by her husband, pianist Serouj Kradjian. The
program features music by Schubert, Bellini, Pauline Viardot, Maurice
Ravel, and Fernando J. Obradors, among others. The concert begins at
7:30 p. m. Tickets: Call Ticketmaster, or MMF at 403-283-5388.
When Calgary pianist Charles Foreman sounds the final note in his
concert on Saturday at the Rozsa Centre, he will have become the first
Canadian to perform all of Chopin’s solo piano works in public. One
hundred and fifty-three pieces played over the course of nine programs
in three years.
"I think I’m out-cycled," says Foreman, laughing. "Although I’m doing
a very modest cycle next year–the 24 Debussy Preludes– in something
called one concert."
It must have done wonders for your technique?
"I do feel like I’m pianistically in great shape," Foreman says. "It’s
a challenge for the memory, and a challenge for the fingers. And it’s
certainly a challenge for interpretation, when you’re talking about
all the nocturnes, all the mazurkas –you have to make something out
of each of those things.
"But what’s intrigued me also is that I haven’t got even the least
bit bored. A piece which I found perhaps less attractive becomes
interesting to you when you look at it in a complete cycle–you think,
‘You know what? This is a better piece than I thought.’ "
A Chopin Portrait IX, presented as part of the University of Calgary
Celebrity Series, begins at 8 p. m. Tickets: $20, $15, available by
calling 403-220-7202, or at the door.
The Instrumental Society of Calgary presents saxophonist Jeremy Brown,
with percussionist Rod Thomas Squance and pianist Marcel Bergmann,
in an afternoon of music that roams from jazz and classical,
to world beat. Both standards and original compositions, in the
jazz category. Showtime: Sunday at 3 p. m. at Scarboro United
Church. Tickets: $15, $10, $40 (family), available at the door,
or by calling 403-440-6829.
Taking Flight, theUof C drama department’s annual festival of
student work, takes off on March 31 at Reeve Theatre where it flies
daily through April 11 (except April 5 and 6). Front and centre
in this year’s edition is RADIO-HEADED 2: IT IS THE 21ST CENTURY,
a music-and-movement staging of Radiohead’s In Rainbows, facilitated
by One Yellow Rabbit’s Denise Clarke. Other work showcased (each play
runs several times throughout the festival) includes Harold Pinter’s
A Kind of Alaska; staged readings of Blood:A Scientific Romance by
Meg Braem, and Our Last White Night by Andrew Torry; Phaedra by Jean
Racine; Polygraph by Robert LePage and Marie Brassard; The Actor’s
Nightmare by Christopher Durang; The Hakka Root by Victoria Lee;
and The Shawl by David Mamet.
Festival Pass: $15. Single tickets: $5. Available by calling 403-220-
7202, or at the door. For times and full descriptions of work offered,
visit Music Voices presents The Golden
Age, a concert featuring Calgary vocal quartet Voicescapes with guest
tenor Tim Shantz (new conductor of both the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus
and Spiritus Chamber Choir) and Toronto lutenist John Edwards. Expect a
program of English Renaissance solo songs and part-songs with poetry
by Sir Philip Sidney and his contemporaries. Time: Saturday at 8
p. m. at Christ Church Elbow Park. Tickets: $25, $20, at the door,
or at Classics Plus record store.