In colorful memorial, opera stars celebrate renowned Georgian tenor
By Alan Blyth
Friday, April 18
Last Sunday evening, the Tbilisi State Opera and Ballet Theater hosted a memorial evening dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of the late Zurab Anjaparidze, one of the finest tenors of his generation. Being a tenor lirico spinto and dramatico, he had a very versatile voice which enabled him to successfully take on roles which require a lot of lyricism in their arias and also roles which have dramatic passages, such as Radames in “Aida.”
Zurab Anjaparidze was born in Kutaisi on April 12, 1928, and after a prolonged illness he died in 1997 on his birthday. As a tribute to his greatness, he is one of the very few to be accorded the privilege of being buried in the grounds of the Opera and Ballet Theater. A simple low-level marble monument bears only his name.
The memorial event lasted for just over an hour and brought together a full house of opera lovers, both young and old, and a galaxy of Georgian opera stars including Armaz Darashvili, Teimuraz Gugushvili, Anzor Khidasheli, Giorgi Makharadze and Eldar Getsadze who sang a compilation of popular opera pieces from “Mindia,” “Rigoletto,” “Daisi,” “Tosca,” “Othello,” “Abesalom and Eteri,” and “Attila.” We weren’t told why these particular pieces had been chosen—perhaps they were some of Zurab Anjaparidze’s favorites. Nonetheless, it was truly amazing to see the cream of Georgian operatic talent gathered together for one performance, and what made the event really rather special was the screening of a number of film clips showing the great man himself singing. The screening of these clips was a wholly unexpected surprise because the program made no mention of it.
In his career, Zurab Anjaparidze took on a wide variety of leading roles ranging from Othello to Don Jose (“Carmen”) and from Abesalom (“Abesalom and Eteri”) to Radames (“Aida”), but it is said that his greatest performance was in “Pikovaia Dama” (“The Queen of Spades”) at the La Scala Opera House in Milan in 1964. His entry in the Dictionary of Georgian National Biography records that his performance in Milan “stunned audiences and influenced subsequent generations of tenors.”
The performers wore evening dress rather than theatrical costumes, except for the final piece—a scene from Guiseppe Verdi’s “Attila”—when the soloists, Giorgi Makharadze, Nugzar Iashvili, Besik Gabitashvili and Legi Imedashvili, together with the chorus, dressed for their parts to give a vibrant and colorful conclusion to this splendid occasion.
Zurab Anjaparidze was born in Kutaisi on April 12, 1928, and after a prolonged illness he died in 1997 on his birthday. As a tribute to his greatness, he is one of the very few to be accorded the privilege of being buried in the grounds of the Opera and Ballet Theater. A simple low-level marble monument bears only his name.
The memorial event lasted for just over an hour and brought together a full house of opera lovers, both young and old, and a galaxy of Georgian opera stars including Armaz Darashvili, Teimuraz Gugushvili, Anzor Khidasheli, Giorgi Makharadze and Eldar Getsadze who sang a compilation of popular opera pieces from “Mindia,” “Rigoletto,” “Daisi,” “Tosca,” “Othello,” “Abesalom and Eteri,” and “Attila.” We weren’t told why these particular pieces had been chosen—perhaps they were some of Zurab Anjaparidze’s favorites. Nonetheless, it was truly amazing to see the cream of Georgian operatic talent gathered together for one performance, and what made the event really rather special was the screening of a number of film clips showing the great man himself singing. The screening of these clips was a wholly unexpected surprise because the program made no mention of it.
In his career, Zurab Anjaparidze took on a wide variety of leading roles ranging from Othello to Don Jose (“Carmen”) and from Abesalom (“Abesalom and Eteri”) to Radames (“Aida”), but it is said that his greatest performance was in “Pikovaia Dama” (“The Queen of Spades”) at the La Scala Opera House in Milan in 1964. His entry in the Dictionary of Georgian National Biography records that his performance in Milan “stunned audiences and influenced subsequent generations of tenors.”
The performers wore evening dress rather than theatrical costumes, except for the final piece—a scene from Guiseppe Verdi’s “Attila”—when the soloists, Giorgi Makharadze, Nugzar Iashvili, Besik Gabitashvili and Legi Imedashvili, together with the chorus, dressed for their parts to give a vibrant and colorful conclusion to this splendid occasion.