ISABEL BAYRAKDARIAN SHOWERS HER LUXURIANT VOICE ON GUSMAN HALL
David Fleshler
South Florida Classical Review
/12/isabel-bayrakdarian-showers-her-luxuriant-voic e-on-gusman-hall/
Dec 21 2009
The Armenian-Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian brought to the
University of Miami’s Gusman Hall a luxuriant soprano voice of a
quality rarely heard on South Florida’s opera stages.
Although the performance Sunday began with a short set of Schubert
songs, this was not a traditional lieder recital, and it’s a good bet
that even vocal aficionados wouldn’t have known half the works on the
program. And even in a music world that has become more international,
Bayrakdarian’s range of languages was impressive, as she sang in
Greek, Armenian, Spanish, Arabic, Yiddish and Aramaic, in addition
to the usual German and Italian.
Bayrakdarian is not one of those sopranos you go to for showy high
notes and vocal virtuosity, although there was plenty of that toward
the end. Her creamy lyric soprano voice was made for long lines of
melody, and this was displayed in song after song, in a recital that
was hard to beat for sheer sonic pleasure. Technically, her voice
was a precise instrument, with fine intonation and a tight vibrato
that never lost the tonal center, except for a few high notes.
She performed with her husband Serouj Kradjian at the piano, as part
of the Sunday Afternoons of Music Series.
Her technical precision, lush voice and sensitive phrasing were on
display in the Schubert lieder and Bellini songs. And she brought
a piquant and sensual quality to Ravel’s arrangement of six Greek
folk songs. But the highlight of the recital were four Armenian folk
songs recorded and arranged by Reverend Gomidas, an Armenian composer
traumatized by the Turkish government’s 1915 campaign of genocide, who
determined to travel Armenia and record the country’s musical heritage.
Bayrakdarian was born in Lebanon to Armenian parents and came to
Canada as a teenager, graduating from the University of Toronto.
Introducing these songs, she alluded to the genocide, telling the
audience the songs came from villages that "do not exist anymore." She
sang Dear Mara, a song of mourning and grief, and an Armenian lullaby
in tender, gentle tones. She brought a passionate but still polished
tone to Children’s Prayer. And her performance of an Armenian woman’s
complaints about her mother in law came off with a light touch and
wry wit.
Also fine were the performances of Spanish folk songs by Fernando
Obradors and a series of tangos by various composers, as Bayrakdarian
allowed a darker, smoky tone into her voice for these sultry,
passionate songs.
Her stage presence was inviting and engaging. Her expressions and
gestures were those of a singer who enjoyed sharing the music with
an audience, rather than just a vocal technician running through her
repertoire. Her husband expertly handled the often-difficult piano
parts, and unlike many accompanists he played assertively enough to
take center stage when the occasion called for it.
Applause was rapturous. She gave two encores, La Rosa Y el Sauce of
Carlos Guastavino, and Tanti affetti in tal momento from Rossini’s La
Donna del Lago, where she showed off vocal pyrotechnics, handling the
runs and ornaments of Rossini’s florid coloratura work with accuracy
and gusto.