A concert in honour of the 75th anniversary of the birth of Armenian tenor Gegam Grigorian will take place in Yerevan on 16 October. Leading international opera performers, including Placido Domingo, will gather on the stage of the National Opera and Ballet Theatre. The conductor's podium will be taken by Grigorian's eldest son, Vardan Grigorian.
This was announced at a press meeting on 14 October. Armenia's Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, Zhanna Andreasyan, noted that the Yerevan Opera Theatre has been experiencing a revival in recent years, and a concert of this calibre is proof of it. She added that thanks to this event, Yerevan is becoming a centre of world classical music.
Placido Domingo told journalists that this is his second visit to Armenia, and he retains wonderful impressions from the first. Gegam Grigorian and Placido Domingo were bound by friendship and collaboration: Domingo conducted Verdi's opera Aida, in which Grigorian sang the role of Radamès. "Gegam Grigorian was a great singer. I remember his performances at Covent Garden, La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, the Mariinsky Theatre," Domingo said.
Gegam Grigorian's daughter, soprano Asmik Grigorian, will also take part in the concert. She has performed on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, the Vienna State Opera and the Paris Opera. The magazine Opernwelt has twice named her Singer of the Year.
My father was like a sunrise for me; he was a sunny person. Armenian and Lithuanian blood flows in me. The Armenian part is warmth. He taught us to live every day to the full. He told me that singing is important, and fame is important, and a beloved calling, and a career, but the most important thing is to remain a human being. He was a wonderful person, perhaps that is why he is so loved.
— Asmik Grigorian, singer
The singer's younger son, Tigran Grigorian, who will also take the stage, shared his memories as well. As a child, when his father was running the Yerevan Opera Theatre, he often took him along instead of kindergarten. "You could say I grew up in this building," Tigran said. "I remember the rehearsals, the joyful atmosphere. When we walked into the theatre, I noticed that people felt it: Gegam Grigorian was a great maestro. It brought everyone joy and cheer."
Besides Domingo and Grigorian's children, the evening will feature singers Barseg Tumanyan, Hovhannes Ayvazyan, Liparit Avetisyan, Yevgeny Nikitin, Tatiana Pavlovskaya and Irena Milkevičiūtė. At the end of the press conference, the theatre's director, Karen Durgaryan, presented Placido Domingo and Asmik Grigorian with commemorative medals.
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