Today, it is the birthday of the famous opera singer Barsegh Tumanyan. It’s his 55th anniversary. Undoubtedly, there will be congratulations, including at a high level, and again and again the achievements and services of the artist will be mentioned, especially the fact that Barsegh Tumanyan is one of the unique who at her young age stood next to our elders of the opera stage, with the confidence performing from selected pages of world opera literature, the bass parts. He is the first Armenian bass, who was invited by the world famous opera theaters, where he had a playmate opera stars. May be the concept of patriotism is simplified, but in the case of the singer it is definitely on its highness. He stayed in the homeland, he was not tempted by the epithet of ‘worldwide’, with which our co-citizens acting in minor theatres of abroad are trying to present before us.
“Aravot” is joining all the congratulations, but also expresses its concern about meeting the famous singer on Armenian stages rarely and for whatever reasons, while Barsegh Tumanyan is a desirable guest for popular opera halls and prestigious concert halls, renowned conductors and orchestras.
In the end of the 20th century, two phenomena in the opera, Basil Tumanyan and Paata Burchuladze, appeared in the center of the global discussions. This means that the talent and the recognition of in singer is a pass in many countries today. With a wide gamut, good lilting, always strong and equal voice, he has created a lot of opera characters. While demonstrating his active attitude towards his works, the singer has never entered into ‘conflict’ with his voice, his voice obeys him, it is always a good assistant to him, always able to give adequate sonorous embodiment to all musical ideas. One important factor. Barsegh Tumanyan transfers a sort of special warmth to all his works performed, no matter what style, what temper and mood they are, as if he colors them in warm, but never screaming tones.
He is always trying to sing light and easy. The matter here is not about the technical easiness, but the easiness that coheres with directness, both in terms of reproduction of feelings, and performance of skills. A breath of the epic is definitely typical to his singing, which is conditioned by the nature of his voice, with the creative temperament tend to heroic – dramatic characters. Since the beginning of his artistic activities, Komitas had its prestigious place in his repertoire, and he did not save exertion and efforts to present the works of genius composer in deserved form and interpretation. And that’s quite understandable: for
him, achieving this mountain peak of art of singing is a matter of dignity and high artistic self-esteem. To sing the ‘simple’ songs of Komitas in deserved simplicity, the singer should have passed through the hardest narrow paths of vocal arts. To the point, Barsegh Tumanyan is the only opera singer in the newly independent Armenia, who was awarded to the honorary title.
The public appreciation is there, but very few people remember him in his professional field, particularly those structures where the singer could have a huge role to play in fostering upbringing of young artists, enhancement of the opera singing and pedagogical foundations, especially in the activities held with the youth at the National Opera Theatre. It is good that he was recently invited to participate in the hearings of the soloists and trainees of the National Opera Theatre, but, as they say, this is a one-off action. While, the artist, being in the flourishing phase of creative powers should have had much more serious and significant position in the opera theater, because his scenic and creative experience, aesthetic perceptions, eventually, his great recognition outside Armenia are sources of making certain steps in the theater, promoting the increase of artistic level of the latter.
Samvel DANIELYAN
