The desires pertaining to the reasons of cancellation of Italian composer Antonio Gonzalez’s concert are still inflamed. Opera Theater director and producer Marina Sargsyan and Manager David Khachatryan accused the Opera conductor Karen Durgaryan of what had happened. Mr. Durgaryan presented the following comment on the issue, “I’m trying to find the way that is called to respect ourselves and respect our audience, and this means providing maximum quality music to the audience. What took place recently was as follows, we scheduled a rehearsal, and from the first rehearsal, it became clear that the second rehearsal is a must.
The first rehearsal showed that the pianist is technically not ready for whatever reasons, now, he is a human being and he can feel bad or excited. We do not consider whether he is a good musician or not. We have the specific work, and he was constantly interrupting when playing. The second day, he interrupted again and left, I asked for 15-minute break for the Orchestra to understand what is going on. There was a small meeting, which was attended by him (Gonzalez), colleagues, our director and the orchestra musicians. In the second part, “Aleko” performance was to be played, but the artists were invited at 8 o’clock. We had to understand whether the audience coming at 7 o’clock should wait until 8 o’clock if Gonzalez’s concert is left out. Everything was organized very quickly, we informed the audience that the concert is not taking place because of the artist’s being sick. The decision was made by him. We had two options, either we are playing the concert or not, Gonzalez said, no. Otherwise, if he had said, yes, the concert would have taken place, and prior to playing, I was to tell the audience that we bear no responsibility for what will be played. He said, OK, and requested that nobody would know about it outside Armenia. First of all, I wanted to respect Theatre Symphony Orchestra, he asked that no one knows just outside Armenia. I said, “You’re an artist, so am I. The artists’ arrangements always remains in force. Now, a situation is created that it turns out that I am trying to give an answer, but I do not answer for them, and I do not defend myself.”
Karen Durgaryan mentioned doubted, “People speak after Gonzalez’s departure, and I have to say that he was not prepared. Any artist can get sick, and the concert is cancelled. For this specific case, we had come to a consensus no to decry him and not to put him in a bad situation. Roughly speaking, it turned so, both ballet and choral groups arrived in time, and we did not make our audience wait long for the performance to play.” To the question of Aravot.am that the producer and project manager have said at the press conference that he was initially in strained relationship with Antonio Gonzalez, so whether it is true, Karen Durgaryan replied, “I neither deny nor confirm, and I do not want to comment anything. It’s their opinion.”
Gohar HAKOBYAN
I am 100% for the conductor he is a true professional.
The only thing I BEG HIM to do is to shave since with all that hair on his face he looks like an Azerbaijani or a Turk.
Long hair is okay but beard and mustache are too old fashioned
Hope to see him shaved.