Recently, a grand concert was held at Geneva’s Victoria Hall, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Puccini’s death and organized by the Avetis Association. The event featured world-renowned tenor Ramón Vargas and Switzerland-based soprano Varduhi Khachatryan, who is also the founder and director of the Avetis Association. The orchestra of the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, conducted by the legendary Spanish opera singer, pianist, and conductor Plácido Domingo, provided the accompaniment.
In an interview with Aravot.am, Varduhi Khachatryan mentioned that the concert was a resounding success. Among the attendees were ambassadors from Albania, Armenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Japan, Mexico, the United States, and other countries, as well as the Director of the UNESCO Office in Geneva. Naturally, the concert program featured works by Puccini, and there were also encore performances. During one of these encores, Plácido Domingo not only conducted the orchestra but also sang and danced.
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Reflecting on the anniversary concerts organized by the Avetis Association, Varduhi Khachatryan recalled that last June, Plácido Domingo and renowned tenor Hovhannes Ayvazyan performed at a concert celebrating the 100th birthday of Maria Callas. She emphasized that Avetis could not overlook the 100th anniversary of Puccini’s death or Callas’s 100th birth anniversary, as these two great masters are her idols.
“In love with these two musicians, I transformed my innate mezzo-soprano voice into a soprano so that I could sing Puccini’s compositions, as he wrote almost nothing for mezzos, and to be able to perform all the pieces by Callas that I have listened to since childhood,” the singer noted.
She added that in October, there will be a special concert dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Charles Aznavour’s birth, featuring the world-renowned pianist Khatia Buniatishvili.
Gohar HAKOBYAN
