Italy, Armenia To Stage Aida In Yerevan Opera

ITALY, ARMENIA TO STAGE AIDA IN YEREVAN OPERA
Armen Hareyan

HULIQ.com
May 12 2010
SC

One of the best known operas by an Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi
Aida will be staged in Armenia in an updated version. The premiere
of Aida will be held in June.

Armenian National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater is looking forward
to the start of a new season in June. It gets ready to have a totally
new and updated version of Aida staging in the capital Yerevan.

Two very famous people are involved in the staging of Aida in Yerevan.

The staging of Aida will be directed by a very famous Italian director
Mario Corradini. One of the most successful lyrical-dramatic sopranos
worldwide Hasmik Papian will sing Aida.

This is a joint project supported by governments of Armenia and Italy.

While, this is not the first time Aida is being staged in Armenian
National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, this is the first time
it brings together to wonderful artists such as Mario Corradini and
Hasmik Papian.

Aida has four actions. Verdi wrote the opera in 1870. Italian libretto
was written by Antonio Ghislanzoni. However, the story is based on a
scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. The premiere
of the opera was held actually in Cairo in 1871.

The Armenian National Academic Opera & Ballet Theater in Yerevan
was founded in 1932 and was opened on January 20, 1933. The theatre
building was constructed in 1940 by the architect Alexander Tamanian.

In 1938, the theater was named after Alexander Spendiaryan, great
Armenian composer, author of opera Almast which was performed in 1933
as a first performance at the theater. Since it’s opening, the theater
has performed more than 200 different operas and ballets by Armenian,
Russian and European composers.

Recently another famous name was involved in staging a ballet in
the theater in Yerevan. Yury Grigorovich, a Russian dancer and
choreographer who dominated the Russian ballet for 30 years, staged
Aram Khachaturian’s ballet Spartacus in Yerevan. The project cost
one million U.S. dollars.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS