Budding diva lives up to buzz
BY ROB HUBBARD

Pioneer Press, MN
June 13 2005

So which do you find more rewarding in an artistic experience, breadth
or depth? Would you rather explore the work of one artist in hopes of
gaining greater understanding? Or do you find a buffet more satisfying,
with a variety of styles and approaches to choose from?

The opening weekend of the Schubert Club’s St. Paul Summer Song
Festival presented such a choice. After tenor Michael Schade offered
his insights into the presenter’s namesake with a concert-length
Schubert song cycle on Friday, young soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian
took the SPCO Center stage Saturday and explored the oeuvres of
nine composers, mixing and matching seemingly disparate works in a
triumphant recital that showed why there’s such a buzz about this
budding diva.

Originally from Armenia, the 30-year-old Bayrakdarian has been a
Canadian citizen since her teen years. As she made her mark with
regional opera companies north of the border, it became clear that
she had a talent too big for the world’s second-largest nation to
hold. Soon she won Placido Domingo’s “Operalia” competition and a
Metropolitan Opera award, and has landed on that company’s stage in
a number of prominent roles.

Although best known as an interpreter of Mozart and Handel, the
soprano set them aside Saturday and demonstrated some ear-opening
versatility. Her Rossini reputation precedes her, and an opening
set of four songs showed why, especially on a whirlwind rendition of
“La Danza” that left both performer and audience breathless.

Expertly accompanied by pianist Warren Jones, Bayrakdarian brought
her acting gifts to the fore on four mazurkas by Chopin collaborator
Pauline Viardot-Garcia, deftly capturing an adolescent’s combination of
wide-eyed innocence and feigned worldliness on a pair of works wrapped
around two conflicting looks at love. Each song proved memorable,
thanks to a voice as technically excellent as it is emotionally rich
and an expressive face ideal for both ingénue and character actress.

Not only did Bayrakdarian span the centuries from Rossini to the
world premiere of a moving song by Pierre Schroeder, but she offered
a whirlwind tour of moods from the tenderness of an Armenian lullaby
to the hot-blooded rage of Manuel de Falla. So fully did the soprano
inhabit each song, she made a convincing case that breadth can be
served with a lot of depth.

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