The Plain Dealer – Cleveland, Ohio
March 14 2009

Soprano keeps songs of Armenian heritage in her heart

by Donald Rosenberg / Plain Dealer Reporter
Saturday March 14, 2009, 12:00 AM

PREVIEW
Isabel Bayrakdarian
What: The soprano gives a recital to benefit the Art Song Festival at
Baldwin-Wallace College. Her program, with pianist Serouj
Kradjian, includes works by Schubert, Bellini, Heggie, Berlioz,
Ravel, Obradors and others.
When: 8 p.m. Friday, March 20.
Where: Baldwin-Wallace College’s Kulas Musical Arts Building, 96 Front
St., Berea.
Tickets: $25; $15, students. Call 440-826-7664.

No one could possibly argue with Isabel Bayrakdarian’s exuberant
self-assessment: "I was always an extrovert."

Indeed.

The Lebanon-born Canadian soprano of Armenian heritage has proved
herself on the international operatic and recital stage, where her
lustrous voice and expressive urgency are winning increasing
approbation. She’s also a virtuoso talker on such subjects as her
transformation from biomedical engineer to professional singer and her
love for the music that courses through her Armenian veins.

Bayrakdarian will sing some of this beloved music when she gives a
recital Friday, March 20, benefiting the Art Song Festival at
Baldwin-Wallace College. The festival, a biennial event founded in
1985 to feature major international singers and pianists in song
repertoire, will be held next in May 2010.

With pianist Serouj Kradjian, Bayrakdarian will explore works by
Schubert, Ravel and others and perform selections from her acclaimed
Nonesuch recording, "Gomidas Songs."

These folk-inspired pieces were collected and arranged by the
19th-century Armenian composer and priest Gomidas Vardabet (also known
as Komitas Vardapet). Bayrakdarian has known many of the lullabies and
hymns since her childhood.

"I think these songs are in the psyche of all Armenians, if we grew up
with them or not," the soprano said recently by cell phone from
Valencia, Spain, where she was singing Despina in Mozart’s "Cosi fan
tutte."

"This is music of our ancestors. For hundreds of years, Armenians were
singing them in their villages and towns for various occasions. I grew
up in Lebanon. As an Armenian living in the Diaspora, we tried to
preserve our language, identity. If our language is gone, we disappear
from the map, because it’s so unique, so unlike any other language."

Bayrakdarian began singing Armenian music in church choirs, first in
Lebanon and then in Toronto, where she moved with her family when she
was 14. Participation in theatrical events helped her become
comfortable in front of spectators.

"I had a lot of stage experience — that whole action of gathering all
your strength backstage while you’re seeing the audience look at you,"
she said.

"Many people don’t have a clue of the nerve it takes. So I guess from
a young age I had that experience and was encouraged to do so. It was
acting, singing, dancing, whatever was needed."

She didn’t have a clue, in fact, about opera until she attended a
performance as a freshman studying biomedical engineering. After
seeing Strauss’ "Ariadne auf Naxos," she surmised that she could do
better than the singers onstage, though she hadn’t yet had a formal
voice lesson.

Once she did find a teacher, Bayrakdarian realized she had more
passion for singing than for science. Her progress was so swift that
she became a professional opera singer the same day in 1997 she
received her engineering degree. In the morning, she received her
diploma. Later that day, she reported for work at Glimmerglass Opera
to rehearse Gluck’s "Iphigenie en Tauride."

Soon thereafter, officials of Lyric Opera of Chicago heard her at the
Ravinia Festival and hired her to appear in William Bolcom’s "A View
>From the Bridge." Bayrakdarian made her Metropolitan Opera debut in
the Bolcom work in 2002.

Her Met schedule has included "Benvenuto Cellini," "The Magic Flute"
and "Don Giovanni," in which she’ll again appear as Zerlina next
month. Mozart has been a constant in Bayrakdarian’s burgeoning career,
though she is ready to retire Susanna ("The Marriage of Figaro") and
perhaps Pamina ("The Magic Flute").

"This is a very good time for me to work on the new repertoire and
figure out what is going to be in the landscape for the next five
years or so," she said.

"I doubt if I will want to reintroduce Susanna. Pamina is a tricky
one. If the tenor is a light tenor, and you have a Pamina like me,
no. I’d look like a tough broad onstage."

Before heading to the Met for "Don Giovanni," Bayrakdarian will sing
recitals in Calgary and Winnipeg, which come on the heels of her Art
Song Festival concert Friday at Baldwin-Wallace.

The high-spirited soprano particularly looks forward to performing the
Armenian pieces in Berea.

"In many ways, when I sing them, especially these songs, they come
from a part of me that is very different from when I sing any other
repertoire — the reason being the language, my mother tongue," she
said.

"I don’t have to think about it. It comes from a completely different
place. I take risks to shape it the way I feel at the moment without
feeling, ‘Is this possible?’ It flows, and it’s never the same."

Bayrakdarian must be careful, however, to live up to standards
maintained by her pianist, who also happens to be her husband.

"Of course, I know if I make up a word, I’m going to hear about it,"
she laughed. "He knows them more intimately than I do."

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