CLocalNews
Nov 19 2011

Review: Opera singer/pianist are the cat’s meow

By Christine Pilgrim – Vernon Morning Star

The first encore, The Cat Duet, performed by soprano Isabel
Bayrakdarian and husband, pianist/composer Serouj Kradjian, delighted
the audience so much that they demanded a second encore at the North
Okanagan Community Concert Association’s Wednesday presentation at the
Performing Arts Centre.

According to Bayrakdarian, this duet, usually sung by two sopranos,
reflected the ups and downs of touring life for a husband and wife
team. It was deliciously tongue-in-cheek and perfectly timed as was
everything the couple performed, whether comic or tragic, solo or duo,
with work by Franz Liszt?, Hector Berlioz? or Kradjian himself in a
program that ran the gamut from classical to opera to folk songs and
dances.

And The Cat Duet crowned it all. From his seat at the Steinway,
Kradjian not only enhanced every perfect note that fell from his
wife’s lips, but he interjected meows of his own. Once, the two even
spat (cat like) at each other, before purring into Bayrakdarian’s
final immaculate high note, `Meee…,’ which proceeded to cascade down
the scale into its `eeeooooooow,’ bringing everyone to their feet
again.

Vernon is blessed to have guest performers of this calibre.

Emotional integrity and acting finesse were balanced by the technical
brilliance of these two Canadians of Armenian heritage.

When Kradjian played his composition Homage to Gomidas, which honoured
the priest, pianist, choir director and singer who collected some
4,000 Armenian folk songs before he lost his mind as a result of
witnessing the atrocities of the 1915-23 Armenian Genocide, his
Armenian spirit shone through his performance. So did Bayrakdarian’s
when she sang a mother’s farewell to her child who, like countless
others, died as a result of the Armenians’ forcible eviction by
Ottoman Imperialists.

But sadness was short lived with these two experts at managing the
crowd. Apart from their outstanding musicality, they looked
magnificent on stage: he in his designer shirts and she in stunning
gowns, by Atelier Rosemary Umetsu, that drew gasps of appreciation.

Another moment of sadness, evoked by the death of Shakespeare’s
Ophelia, scored originally by Berlioz for a female chorus, was offset
by the wit and ebullience of Rossini’s Barber of Seville.

First came Kradjian’s piano solo transcribed from the celebrated
baritone aria Largo al factotum, followed by Bayrakdarian’s faultless
comedic rendition of Una voce poco fa. She remembers this aria
fondly, as The Barber of Seville marked her opera debut. An
understudy with Canadian Opera, she went on as Rosina on opening night
and hasn’t looked back since.

Nor should she. Bayrakdarian is engaged to her fingertips in
everything she sings and her command of the audience is total, whether
with personal stories such as that of her three-year-old son’s
response to her Armenian lullaby (He suggests the key she should sing
it in!) or the exquisite love songs she added to the program, `begging
our indulgence.’

Judging from their response Wednesday evening, Vernon audiences would
`indulge’ Bayrakdarian and Kradjian any time they wish to return.

“ Christine Pilgrim is a freelance writer who reviews North Okanagan
Community Concert Association presentations for The Morning Star.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress