A wonderful visit to Armenia

May 22, 2019

As some of you did notice, and emailed me about, my homepage was down for a  week. It was attacked by malware. I have now taken extra precautions and hope it won’t happen again. 

Meanwhile I am travelling back to Germany from Jerevan, Armenia where I sang  Beethoven’s ninth symphony with the Armenia State Symphony Orchestra and conductor Sergey Smbatyan. The concert was dedicated to the Europe Day and the audience consisted mostly of politicians, ambassadors, diplomats and NGOs, I was told. With the important EU-elections coming up it felt extra valuable to be part of such a day. I am thankful for the honour.

  • Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall
  • ASSO, Armenia State Symphony Orchestra and Sergey Smbatyan
  • Rehearsal: Sofya Sayadyan, me and Ivaylo Mihaiylov
  • The Concert Hall seen from the Cascade
  • Post concert: Sergey Kovnir, Sofya Sayadyan, Ivaylo Mikhaylov, your truly and Sergey Smbatyan

I had a fantastic, and delicious, time. The hospitality was heartwarming, the food fantastic and we had a lot of fun making this bombastic music. Since there isn’t much for the mezzo soprano to worry about in the piece I did my best to get an impression of the town and country even if my stay was sadly brief. I very much hope to go back, I really liked what I saw. I truly can recommend a visit. 

Tonight I meet up with old friends from my “Operetta days” in Berlin and we will have a reunion singing on a private event in Frankfurt. 

Tomorrow I’ll go back to Karlstad for the two remaining shows of La tragédie de Carmen. The run has passed so quickly!