On 29 January, Gegam Grigorian's birthday, Yerevan will host the grand unveiling of a monument to the famed opera singer, stage director, Artistic Director of the Armenian National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, People's Artist of the Republic of Armenia and Honoured Artist of Lithuania.
On that day the Mariinsky Theatre will pay tribute to the outstanding Armenian tenor with an evening of song at the Concert Hall featuring Tatiana Pavlovskaya (soprano), Irina Bogacheva (mezzo-soprano), Migran Agadzhanian (tenor), Akhmed Agadi (tenor), Mikhail Vekua (tenor), Roman Burdenko (baritone), Sergei Aleksashkin (bass) and Vladimir Feliauer (bass). The programme includes arias and scenes from the operas Adrienne Lecouvreur by Francesco Cilea, The Queen of Spades by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, La forza del destino, Attila and Don Carlo by Giuseppe Verdi and Turandot and Tosca by Giacomo Puccini.
The performance by Yuri Bashmet (viola) and the Mariinsky Orchestra, previously scheduled for 29 January at the Concert Hall, is moved on 22 May 2018.
On 29 January instead of the concert will be the concert in memory of Gegham Grigoryan. Tickets remain valid.
A native of Yerevan and a graduate of the Yerevan State Komitas Conservatoire, Gegam Grigorian performed lead tenor roles at the world's great opera houses – in New York, London, Rome, Milan, Amsterdan, Genoa and Wiesbaden. The singer's stage career began at the Armenian National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, where he appeared while still a student of the conservatoire. From 1978-1979 Gegam Grigorian trained at La Scala in Milan, subsequently concluding a contract with the theatre to perform roles in the operas Boris Godunov and Tosca. On the invitation of Virgilijus Noreika, in 1980 he moved to Vilnius, where he worked at the Lithuanian Opera until 1988, and one year later Grigorian joined the Kirov (Mariinsky) Theatre. His repertoire was truly universal and featured almost every tenor role in the international opera repertoire as well as operas by Armenian composers. At the Mariinsky Theatre the singer appeared as Cavaradossi, Pinkerton, José, Don Ottavio, Don Alvaro, Faust, Almaviva, Lensky, the Pretender, Vladimir Igorevich, Pierre Bezukhov, Radamès, Otello, Alfred, Manrico, Rodolfo and Canio. Gegam Grigorian made a significant contribution to the development of the Mariinsky Opera. His beautiful and dramatic voice and his magnificent performance as Herman in the opera The Queen of Spades is remembered in St Petersburg to this day.
The singer appeared in recordings of the operas The Queen of Spades, Sadko, Iolanta and Prince Igor, released by Philips, featuring soloists and the Mariinsky Chorus and Orchestra under Valery Gergiev.
In 2000 Gegam Grigorian was appointed Artistic Director of the Armenian National Spendiarian Opera and Ballet Theatre, a post he occupied until his death.
Gegam Grigorian died on 23 March 2016 at the age of sixty-five.
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