Armen Tigranian | |
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| Born | December 26, 1879 |
| Died | February 10, 1950 (aged 70) |
| Occupation(s) | composer, conductor |
| Years active | 1890s–1950 |
Armen Tigranian or Tigranyan or Dikranian (Armenian : Արմեն Տիգրանի Տիգրանյան; 26 December 1879, Alexandropol – 10 February 1950, Tbilisi) [1] was an Armenian composer, conductor and sociocultural activist. His best-known work is Anoush , [2] premiered in Alexandropol in 1912. It is the first opera ever performed in Armenia.
Tigranian was born in Alexandropol in the Russian Empire (present-day Gyumri, Armenia). Composer Vardan Tigranyan (1906–1974) and architect Edmond Tigranyan were his sons.
He became interested in music at a very early age. In 1894, he moved to Tiflis (now Tbilisi) with his family, enrolled in the local music school where he mastered the flute, studied the piano and took classes in music theory under Nikolay Klenovsky. During the same period he studied composition with Makar Yekmalyan. Tigranian returned to Alexandropol in 1902 and devoted himself to teaching and composing music. He organized an amateur mixed choir and gave his first performance in 20 October 1902. He toured Tiflis, Kars, Yerevan, and Baku, disseminating Armenian music. [3]
During this period he composed his first compositions, including «Սև աչերեն» (Of the Black Eyes, text by Avetik Isahakyan, «Մնաք բարով» (Good Bye, text by Hovhannes Hovhannisyan) and choral arrangements of folk material.
During the years 1908 and 1912 he composed his masterpiece «Անուշ» (Anoush), generally considered the "national opera of the Armenian people". [4] Anoush, based on Hovhannes Tumanian's story of romance and tragedy, is a social drama distinguished by the originality of its national style, its folk characters, and its musical language. It captured the attention of audiences and became an enduring favorite of the opera repertoire. [5] The opera was premiered by an amateur group in Alexandropol on 4 August 1912. [6]
The next year, Tigranian moved once more back to Tiflis where he became an active member of the Armenian Music Society, he taught, and toured, performing his own compositions.
Following the establishment of the Soviet regime, Tigranian thoroughly reviewed and edited the opera Anoush in order to adhere to the principles of the new populist aesthetics. The new edition was performed for the first time in Yerevan on 27 March 1935, and then in Moscow during the ten-day Festival of Armenian Arts on 22 October 1939. For this occasion the score was re-orchestrated by Anoushavan Ter-Ghevondyan. The American premiere of Anoush took place on 27 May 1923 at the Lexington Avenue Opera House [7] in New York in a presentation marketed toward the Armenian immigrant audience. The official American premiere of Anoush took place on 31 October 1981 at Michigan Opera Theatre.
Tigranian's second opera «Դավիթ Բեկ» (David Bek (opera)) was inspired by the history of Karabakh Melikdoms. [8] It is based on a novel by Raffi (pen name for Hakob Melik Hakobian) and was composed during 1941 and 1950. Its melodic contour is mostly derived from Armenian folk songs; its music is accessible. The instrumentation was realized by Levon Khoja-Eynatyan and was staged in 1950 in Yerevan shortly after the composer's death.
Among the other works by Tigranian are the drama Leily and Mejnun, Eastern Dance for symphonic orchestra, songs, choral works and piano pieces. A collection of his articles, letters, and memoire was published in 1981 in Yerevan. He has translated into Armenian the libretti of Verdi's Rigoletto and Bizet's Carmen.
Tigranian died in Tbilisi and is buried in the Yerevan Central Cemetery, also known as Tokhmakh. [9] There are schools named after him and streets designated in Yerevan and in Gyumri.
Shirak is a province of Armenia. It is located in the north-west of the country, bordering the provinces of Lori to the east and Aragatsotn to the south and southeast, and the countries of Turkey to the west and Georgia to the north. Its capital and largest city is Gyumri, which is the second largest city in Armenia. It is as much semi-desert as it is mountain meadow or high alpine. In the south, the high steppes merge into mountain terrain, being verdant green in the spring, with hues of reddish brown in the summer. The province is served by the Shirak International Airport of Gyumri.
Hovhannes Tumanyan was an Armenian poet, writer, translator, and literary and public activist. He is the national poet of Armenia.
Gyumri is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city was known as Alexandropol, it became the largest city of Russian-ruled Eastern Armenia with a population above that of Yerevan. The city became renowned as a cultural hub, while also carrying significance as a major center of Russian troops during Russo-Turkish wars of the 19th century.
The Battle of Sardarabad was a battle of the Caucasus campaign of World War I that took place near Sardarabad, Armenia, from 21 to 29 May 1918, between the regular Armenian military units and militia on one side and the Ottoman army that had invaded Eastern Armenia on the other. As Sardarabad is approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) west of the capital of Yerevan, the battle not only halted the Ottoman advance into the rest of Armenia, but also prevented the complete destruction of the Armenian nation. The battle paved the way for the establishment of the First Republic of Armenia and the Treaty of Batum: recognition of Armenia by the Ottoman Empire.
Grikor Mirzaian Suni was an Armenian composer and choirmaster.
Armen Tigranyan is an Armenian former football midfielder. He was also a member of the Armenia national team, and has participated in 3 international matches since his debut in an away 2006 World Cup qualification match against Czech Republic on 7 September 2005.
Armenian opera is the art of opera in Armenia or opera by Armenian composers. The founder of the Armenian operatic tradition was Tigran Chukhajian (1837–98), who was born in Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and received his musical education in Milan, where he became a great admirer of Verdi. He was a political and musical nationalist who mixed Western and Armenian influences in his work. His Arshak Erkrord is regarded as the first Armenian opera. It was written in 1868 but had to wait until 1945 for a full staging. The libretto, by Tovmas Terzian, is based on the life of the 4th-century king Arsaces II. Chukhadjian's other operas include Arifi khardakhutyune ; Zemire (1891), which was written in Turkish and premiered in Constantinople; as well as Kyose Kyokhva, Lelebidj and Indiana.
Petros Heronimosi Adamian was an Armenian actor, poet, writer, artist and public figure who worked in the Ottoman and Russian empires. He was famed for his Shakespearean roles, especially Hamlet, Othello and King Lear.
Almast is the only opera of the Armenian composer Alexander Spendiaryan.
The Armenians have historically been one of the main ethnic groups in the city of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Armenians are the largest ethnic minority in Tbilisi at 4.8% of the population. Armenians migrated to the Georgian lands in the Middle Ages, during the Muslim rule of Armenia. They formed the single largest group of city's population in the 19th century. Official Georgian statistics of 2014 put the number of Armenians in Tbilisi at 53,409 people.
Anoush is a five-act opera composed by Armen Tigranian, based on the 1892 poem of the same name by Hovhannes Tumanyan. Originally composed in 1912, it was first performed in Alexandropol, but it had to wait until 1935 for its full professional staging at the Armenian National Opera Theater. Anoush remains in the repertoire in Armenia.
Geghuni Chitchyan or Chitchian is an Armenian composer, pianist, and pedagogue. Her parents were veteran teachers; her brother, Henrikh, an established violinist.
Nikoghayos Tigranian was an Armenian composer, pianist, musicologist, and sociocultural activist. He introduced the Braille System to Armenia.
The Karin dialect is a Western Armenian dialect originally spoken in and around the city of Erzurum, now located in eastern Turkey.
Mkrtich Harutyunyan, known by the pen name Mkrtich Armen was a Soviet and Armenian writer and poet.
Yerevan railway station is the central station of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, located south of downtown Yerevan, approximately 2.8 km from Republic Square.
David Bek is an 1882 novel by Armenian writer Raffi based on the life of Davit Bek, an early 18th century Armenian nobleman and revolutionary. The novel was the base for David Bek, a 1944 Soviet Armenian film by Hamo Beknazarian, and the opera David Bek composed by Armen Tigranian.
Tigran Levoni Levonyan was an Armenian operatic tenor and director, Professor of Yerevan State Conservatory. People's Artist of Armenia (1984). He was the husband of Gohar Gasparyan and brother of director Armen Khandikyan.
Anoushavan Ter-Ghevondyan was an Armenian composer, pedagogue, and sociocultural activist. His father was the photographer Grigor Ter-Ghevondyan; and his daughter, pianist Heghine Ter-Ghevondyan.
Spiridon Melikyan was an Armenian musicologist, composer, choirmaster, and teacher. His son composer Hrachya Melikyan died in 1942 during the Mogilev offensive in World War II.
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