A defining opera - 'Arshak II'

[Azat]

A defining opera - Tightly knit Armenian American community worked hard to make 'Arshak II' a reality

 

It was election night 1997, and the Bay Area's Armenian American community was in high spirits. San Francisco voters had just approved the sale of the controversial cross atop Mount Davidson to a coalition of Armenian American groups, and a victory party was under way at Saroyan Hall, the community's meeting place on Brotherhood Way.

 

"I was out on the dance floor, laughing and celebrating," recalls Denise LaPointe, a San Francisco political organizer who had helped lead the campaign.

 

"And this guy comes up to me and says, 'We need your help.' "

 

The guy was Gerard Svazlian, a violinist with the San Francisco Opera. And the project he had in mind would occupy the attention and efforts of this small, tightly knit ethnic community for the next four years.

 

Svazlian wanted nothing less than to get the Opera to stage "Arshak II," an 1868 work by Armenian composer Tigran Chukhadian. If it came off, it would mark the first professional production in this country of an Armenian opera.

 

And all they had to do, Svazlian said, was to raise $1 million from the Armenian American community toward the cost of the production.

 

On the face of it, the proposition seemed fanciful at best. Opera funding usually comes either from a company's operating budget or from high-profile donors. But after a year and a half of feverish effort, Svazlian and his committee had secured just over $1 million in pledges -- enough to persuade

 

 

Opera general director Lotfi Mansouri to go ahead with the $3 million project.

 

Saturday's premiere, accompanied by a gala fund-raiser to benefit the Vanadzor Music School in the earthquake-damaged Lori region of Armenia, says a lot about the Armenian community's ethnic pride and solidarity.

 

Armenia's history "is filled with so much adversity that many people would neither have time nor motivation to devote themselves to fine arts, art and architecture. Yet even in the worst of times this kind of activity has gone on, " says Richard Hovanissian, a specialist in Armenian history at the University of California at Los Angeles, who served as a consultant on the project.

 

The path to Saturday's premiere began when Svazlian started trying to interest Mansouri and artistic administrator Kip Cranna in some of the repertoire he had come to know and love during his 10 years with the Armenian National Opera in the capital city of Yerevan.

 

"For years I have played the Western repertoire," says Svazlian, who came to San Francisco in 1978. "But I was always sitting in my chair thinking there are Armenian operas that should be here. Some day I'd like to see it happen.

 

"I know Lotfi is a cosmopolitan person, and he knew many Armenians from his youth in Iran. So I took a chance that he would respect this. I offered him two operas, 'Arshak' and (Armen Tigranian's) 'Anush,' but in my heart I was hoping he would choose 'Arshak.' "

 

Mansouri's response was enthusiastic, but tempered by a sense of what the project would cost. He agreed to undertake the production if the Armenian community would put up $1 million.

 

"At first I naively thought, well, I'll approach some millionaire Armenian and that will be that," Svazlian recalls. "But I got letters saying, 'Armenians are starving and you're trying to stage an Armenian opera?' "

 

Instead, Svazlian formed a committee to raise the money through smaller donations. People told their friends, and soon word of the project spread throughout the Armenian American community.

 

By the end of January 1999, Mansouri's deadline for deciding whether the project would go forward, the committee had met its goal. Of the 557 contributors in the final tally, only 104 gave $1,000 or more.

 

There are about a million people of Armenian descent in this country, and about half of them live in California. Most are second- and third-generation Americans, with the largest populations in the Los Angeles and Detroit areas. In the Bay Area, the community numbers about 50,000.

 

Armenian Americans regard themselves as a community in diaspora and tend to maintain close ties to the Republic of Armenia, which has suffered enormous economic and social hardship since the demise of the Soviet Union. Not only has the country lost the advantages of the Soviet economy, it has also suffered severe drought, famine and, in 1988, an earthquake.

 

And looming over the collective immigrant experience is the specter of the massacre and deportations of more than 1 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I, what is often referred to as the "Armenian genocide."

 

The facts of the matter remain controversial, with the Turkish government and many Turkish scholars disputing the scope or nature of the killings or even maintaining a firm denial. But for many Armenian Americans, it is the defining fact of their national history.

 

"The Armenians in this country are all either children or grandchildren of survivors of the genocide," says James Russell, professor of Armenian studies at Harvard.

 

"But it's an unrecognized genocide, and for the survivors there's a kind of surrealistic horror in that everything central to them is systematically denied."

 

"There's a very strong drive among Armenians not to lose our identity," says Roxanne Makasdjian, a San Francisco TV news producer who was active in the fund-raising campaign. "We want to show the world that we're not gone, and that our culture is very rich. We've come out of the genocide, and look where we are now -- with 'Arshak' on the world stage."

 

"This is an extraordinary opportunity to gather members of the community in a celebratory event," said San Francisco attorney David Balabanian, a participant in the fund-raising drive and a member of the Opera board.

 

"We haven't had too many of those -- mostly it's been for things like the earthquake. But this is a chance to showcase Armenian talent, Armenian singers and the Armenian language."

 

Nor was the fund-raising a blind exercise in national pride, says Julie Kulhanjian Strauch of Piedmont, who with her husband, high-tech investor Roger Strauch, was the first $100,000 donor to the project.

 

"It's not fair to say, 'They're Armenian, ergo they wrote a check.' The people who supported this project are passionate, arts-oriented people. I don't think it was difficult for them to sign on with the San Francisco Opera, because they appreciated that it's an institution that does the best that can be done."

 

---------------------------------------------

 

OPERA

ARSHAK II: The San Francisco Opera production of the 1868 work by Armenian composer Tigran Chukhadian premieres Saturday and will be performed five more times through Sept. 30 Sept. 8-30, at the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. (415) 864-3330 or www.sfopera.com.

 

E-mail Joshua Kosman at jkosman@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...04/DD201190.DTL

[Azat]

Today: September 07, 2001 at 13:15:16 PDT

 

S.F. Opera Debuts 'Arshak II'

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - From his chair in the orchestra pit, violinist Gerard Svazlian beams with pride as he hears his dream come true.

 

Above him, performers wrapped in jewel-toned robes and headdresses glide across the stage, and hooded knights wield swords and shields.

 

It's a final rehearsal for a 19th century opera that has never been seen in its original version. The composer, Tigran Chukhadjian, wrote "Arshak II" in 1868, creating Armenia's first opera.

 

The San Francisco Opera will debut "Arshak II" on Saturday - the first time it will be performed as conceived by the Italian-trained Chukhadjian, and the first professional U.S. staging of any Armenian opera.

 

"All my life I played all kinds of opera," said Svazlian, an Egyptian-born Armenian. "My dream all the time while I was playing Wagner, Strauss, all of those, was, 'Why not play some of those Armenian jewels?'"

 

Five years ago, Svazlian took his idea to outgoing opera director Lotfi Mansouri, who offered him a deal: If the violinist could raise $1 million, Mansouri would make sure "Arshak" made it to the stage.

 

"In this country every opera has to be sponsored by somebody," Svazlian said.

 

"But the million dollars scared me a little bit. I hesitated, but I said, I will do it."

 

He turned to the Armenian American community, thinking at first that he could simply approach some millionaire and seal the deal. He quickly met with resistance from people who felt opera was an extravagance given the suffering in Armenia, a former Soviet republic.

 

The Caucasus Mountains nation has endured enormous economic and social hardships, including a 1988 earthquake. Many thought the money could be better spent on hospitals or schools.

 

Svazlian formed a committee to raise money for the opera through smaller donations.

 

The United States is home to about a million people of Armenian descent, about half of whom live in California. Dinners were held, letters were sent, and money came flowing in. In the end, only 104 of 550 donors gave $1,000 or more. The rest came in contributions as small as $10.

 

The word-of-mouth fund-raising effort not only energized Armenian Americans but raised Armenia's profile among powerful patrons of the arts, said committee member Denise LaPointe.

 

"Any introduction to one's culture can have long-term effects," she said. "It's a benefit that you can't touch, but it's equally significant."

 

Next, the company had to find its opera.

 

Chukhadjian wrote "Arshak" to an Italian libretto by Tovmas Terzian, a fellow Armenian. Excerpts were performed in Europe during the composer's lifetime, but the full production was never staged. The score, thought to have been lost, was discovered in Yerevan, Armenia's capital, in 1942. A Soviet version was produced in 1945, but its score had been chopped up and a new libretto glorified the title character.

 

"One hour of music was not written by the original composer," said Kip Cranna, musical administrator of the San Francisco Opera. "It's in a grandiose 20th century style as opposed to a mid-19th century Italian opera style. It's also very different in character. The adaptation is a piece in which the hero is just that, he's heroic. He's all-conquering and triumphant."

 

In the original, the 4th-century ruler was a flawed man caught up in romantic and political intrigue.

 

With Svazlian's help, Cranna tracked down two Armenian scholars who were already at work crafting a true-to-the-original "Arshak."

 

"It was basically a job of scholarly editing to recreate the composer's original intentions," Cranna said.

 

Christopher Robertson, a baritone who sings the lead role, said "Arshak" is full of "beautiful and dramatic moments."

 

"There are parts of it that have a definite ethnic sound," he said. "But it's very accessible and it will be very comfortable to listen to."

 

Although some seats remained for opening night, spokesman Bob Cable said the company had met 90 percent of its goal of $1.5 million in ticket sales.

 

San Francisco opera-goers generally have been receptive to new works. The company has performed "Harvey Milk," about the gay San Francisco supervisor who was gunned down by an ex-police officer; "Dead Man Walking," based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean, a nun who acted as spiritual adviser to a murderer on death row; and Andre Previn's adaptation of "A Streetcar Named Desire."

 

"New opera has always been a piece of what can sell here," said LaPointe. "If it's artistically valid, they're open to it."

 

Saturday's premiere will be accompanied by a fund-raiser for the Vanadzor Music School in the earthquake-damaged Lori region of Armenia.

 

"We're a very small nation," said Svazlian. "Many others came out and disappeared from the earth because they didn't have a culture. But our culture goes back before the 7th century B.C. and now we're seeing something new come into the world, like a newborn baby."

 

--

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/.../090703855.html

[Azat]

In Verdi's shadow

Derivative 'Arshak' is mainly of academic interest

 

Allan Ulrich, Chronicle Music Critic Monday, September 10, 2001

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

Call it imitation or homage, depending on your capacity for charity, but no tribute more befits Giuseppe Verdi in this, the centennial year of his death, than Tigran Chukhadjian's 1868 "Arshak II," the original version of which was given its world premiere Saturday evening by the San Francisco Opera at the War Memorial Opera House.

 

Considered to be the cornerstone of Armenian national opera, this epic of lust and treachery in the fourth century arrives on the boards thanks to the fund-raising efforts of the Armenian community in this country. Approximately $1 million was collected for the production, a project fomented by the company's former general director, Lotfi Mansouri.

 

Let him take the rap for exhuming this earnest but almost totally derivative effort at barnstorming Italianate music drama. A deeply committed cast and conductor Loris Tjeknavorian struggled to lend the work distinction Saturday, but with "Rigoletto" alternating in the Opera's fall schedule, the sincerest form of flattery simply isn't good enough.

 

The facsimiles of iconic Verdian moments pile up with disarming frequency during the 2 1/2-hour "Arshak II." Think of a tyrant undergoing a sudden change of heart and you think "Nabucco." Think of a maleficent couple confronting supernatural forces and you think "Macbeth." Think of a soldier recounting grisly events to the troops with a bouncy swagger and you think "Il Trovatore." Think of a prelate preaching eternal rest and a stage littered with bodies at the fall of the curtain and you think "La forza del destino."

 

If only Chukhadjian's melodic materials were more original. If only the harmonies were more dramatically focused. If only Chukhadjian could shape an ensemble with any kind of psychological acuity. If only the Armenian composer possessed Verdi's theatrical savvy and genius for deft characterization through the musical line.

 

It's no surprise that Chukhadjian (1837-1898) studied in Milan and that "Arshak II," set to an Italian libretto by Tovmas Tersian, was his first operatic effort. Unfortunately for him, by 1868, Verdi had almost completely abandoned the style of his "galley years," including the archaic cavatina- cabaletta aria sequence; the five-act version of "Don Carlos" (a different kettle of poissons altogether) had premiered in Paris the year before. "Arshak II" recalls Verdi, but it's the Verdi of "I Masnadieri."

 

At least, thanks to the valiant musicological efforts of Haig Avakian and Gerald Papasian, the work, never produced in the composer's lifetime, can be heard as intended. In 1945, the Soviets staged the work in Yerevan, ignominiously revising it to make the homicidal Arshak (or Arsace) a hero of the people. The cuts inflicted on the Urtext Saturday did minimal harm, but, beyond the problems it presented to non-native singers, one must regret Mansouri's insistence on an Armenian translation; this is Italian music down to the double bar.

 

The libretto, drastically trimmed by Chukhadjian, presented a modicum of dramatic possibilities. Fresh from bashing the Persians, King Arshak is smitten with his sister-in-law Paransema, kills his brother-in-law Knel and imprisons his faithful wife, Olimpia. Later he recants, but the jealous Paransema wreaks havoc. The good guy (the tenor, naturally) is the army commander, Valinace.

 

Occasionally, "Arshak II" transcends its circumstances. The incarcerated Olimpia, suspended in a huge bird cage in Francesca Zambello's production, laments the murder of her son in a flowing cantilena that touches the heart with its lyrical sincerity. It was at this point, too, that the most memorable debutante of the evening, Armenian soprano Hasmik Papian, revealed a potent, vibrantly hued instrument that deserves additional exposure here.

 

Zambello seemed content to allow the formulaic arias and ensembles to flourish without tampering or imposing any idiosyncrasies. However, the supernatural episode looked feeble, as lit by Mark McCullough, while Denni Sayers' hilarious, climactic slave girl ballet came right out of a Maria Montez movie.

 

John Coyne's sets, made up of mobile, tiered walls, were suitably imposing, as were Anita Yavich's costumes.

 

One suspects that there is more to Arshak than Christopher Robertson's edgy,

 

breathy baritone communicated Saturday. Debuting mezzo-soprano Nora Gubisch's Paransema vamped outrageously, while exposing an instrument with more holes than a moth-eaten sweater.

 

As Valinace, Gordon Gietz introduced a trumpety tenor and superb diction. Tigran Martirossian, a sonorous Armenian bass, lent conviction to Nerses, the Catholicos of Armenia. Ian Robertson's chorus produced robust sounds.

 

All credit to Tjeknavorian, who pursued his assignment with heroic enthusiasm even when the cause seemed lost. History has been served. On with the opera season.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

OPERA

ARSHAK II: The San Francisco Opera will repeat Tigran Chukhadjian's opera in repertory through Sept. 30 at the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. Tickets: $23-$165. (415) 864-3330 or www.sfopera.com.

 

----- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...10/DD189287.DTL

[MosJan]

ARSHAK II DEBUT IN SAN FRANCISCO

Composer Tigran Chukhadjian wrote ``Arshak II'' in 1868, creating Armenia's first opera. Then opera was never fully staged before and its international debut took place Saturday, September 8, in the San Francisco Opera.

 

 

The debut was a great success, 1200 seats of the opera hall were all full, and notable Armenian singers Hasmik Papian, Tigran Martirosian and Parandzem’s role player Frenchwoman Nora Gyubish were happy. The experts especially gave a high mark to the performance of Hasmik Papian.

 

 

The performance pleased both American-Armenian and American audience. Hasmik Papian said that by this debut we acquainted the world with Armenia’s opera and music. The opera will be staged again on September 11, 16, 21, 27 and 30.

[MosJan]

OPERA REVIEW

Just a Beginning

A revival of Tigran Chukhadjian's "Arshak II" spotlights the birth of Armenian opera, but hardly its pinnacle.

 

By MARK SWED, Times Music Critic

 

SAN FRANCISCO—There is no more curious or more obscure opera likely to be found anywhere this season than Tigran Chukhadjian's "Arshak II," which was given

The state's Armenian community is helping to underwrite the San Francisco Opera staging of the 1868 work "Arshak II."

Associated Press

http://www.calendarlive.com/callive/images/stories/arshak_gj9xjbke.jpg

its world premiere by the San Francisco Opera at the War Memorial Opera house Saturday night.

Written in 1868, it was the first Armenian opera, but, for both political and economic reasons, only concert excerpts were performed during the composer's lifetime. The score was presumed lost after his death in 1898, but the manuscript was discovered three decades later in Paris, among the effects of Chukhadjian's widow, who died there. A Soviet-approved version of the opera—with the music rewritten to an entirely new libretto—was given its premiere in the Armenian capital Yerevan in 1945 to celebrate the end of World War II, and it is in that form that the opera continues to be mounted in Armenia.

The inspiration for the "Arshak II" premiere, the first professional production of an Armenian opera in this country, was that of a violinist in the San Francisco Opera, Gerard Svazlian, who had once been a member of the Armenian National Opera in Yerevan. When he approached then-San Francisco Opera general director Lotfi Mansouri (who retired at the end of last season) with his dream to mount an Armenian opera, Mansouri agreed to produce "Arshak II," provided that the violinist could produce $1 million. With contributions large and small (mostly small) from the extensive California Armenian community, Svazlian raised the money.

And so a proud community and the opera came together Saturday night for a gala premiere, with the proceeds to be donated to the reconstruction of the Vanatsor Armenian Music School destroyed by Armenia's 1988 earthquake. It was a noble night all around, except for one major flaw. "Arshak II" represents the birth of a national opera, not its pinnacle; it is not even a representative of its potential. Despite its subject matter and the fact that it was performed in Armenian, there is next to nothing Armenian in the art of "Arshak II."

Shortly before writing his first opera, Chukhadjian studied for three years at the Milan Conservatory and came to be known as the Armenian Verdi (when he wasn't called the Armenian Offenbach). He wrote "Arshak II" in Italian as "Arsace" (it was specially translated into Armenian for the San Francisco performance, while still retaining the characters' Italianized names). It was later that Chukhadjian blended Armenian folk music into his Westernized operatic molds. "Arshak II" mimics only early and middle-period Verdi, um-pah-pahs and all. At best, there is an extra grace note here and there to add a touch of "exoticism."

The libretto by Tovmas Tersian follows the Italian practice of the day, turning historical characters into melodramatic monsters. In it, Arsace (based on the 4th century Armenian king), lusting after his sister-in-law, the beautiful Paransema, imprisons his own wife Olimpia; kills his brother, Knel; and forces Paransema to marry him. Along the way, Arsace also murders his father, the old king Diran. Paransema turns nasty in her own right and slays the son of Arsace and Olimpia. Angered that Arsace has rekindled his love for the gentle Olimpia, the new queen then poisons the imprisoned one, but the plot goes and awry and both queens drink the doctored wine. The horrified Armenian people finally execute Arsace.

In an attempt to extract exciting theater out of this, San Francisco Opera hired a noted director, Francesca Zambello, who seems to have simply thrown up her hands (as she also has many in the cast do). Perhaps she realized that with John Coyne's clunky Babylonian set and Anita Yavich's folksy costumes, there was little hope. But Zambello did produce one touching moment, lowering Olimpia down in her cage. The most beautiful music in the opera is also Olimpia's; her lament to her slaughtered son demonstrates the budding original talent in the young composer. That moment, however, had to compete with the likes of a tepid graveyard scene in which Arsace and Paransema are confronted by the ghosts of their victims and a kitschy ballet in the last act.

Olimpia was entrusted to the most accomplished singer in the cast, Armenian soprano Hasmik Papian, who has the steely gleam and rapt lyricism of a true Verdian. The French mezzo-soprano Nora Gubisch was always loud, and occasionally exciting, as a tigerish Paransema. The bass Tigran Martirossian was the booming Catholic priest, Nerses (the real historical troublemaker but, in the opera, a mildly persuasive figure). Baritone Christopher Robertson looked more imposing than he sounded as Arsace; tenor Philip Webb was a stalwart Knel. Loris Tjeknavorian conducted the undemanding score with more purpose than nuance. The chorus has a large part and sang with spirit.

In the end, the evening proved more a triumph of musicological enterprise than opera. A community had been prodded into paying for this historical resurrection in the name of national pride. Maybe it is an exaggeration to say that "Arshak II" is to Armenian opera what James Hewitt's 1794 "Tammary, or The Indian Chief" (the first American opera composed for the American stage) is to American opera.

But "Arshak II" is hardly an example of the heights to which a great culture can rise. As for Mansouri, he left the whole mess of selling the stage to special interest groups in the hands of its his successor, Pamela Rosenberg, who must cool her heels for a season before she can begin providing this company with the substance it has sorely lacked in recent years.

 

"Arshak II" continues (with some cast changes) through Sept. 30, War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, (415) 861-4008 or http://www.sfopera.org.

 

 

Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times

[Harut]

did you hear how much some Armenian historians and musicians complain about the opera? as i heard they say it completely misrepresented Armenian cuture and the history of the time. also, i heard they didn't approve the musical part of it, saying it was not what Tigran Chukhadjian wrote.

 

what do you know about this?