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Budding diva lives up to buzz

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  • Budding diva lives up to buzz

    Budding diva lives up to buzz
    BY ROB HUBBARD

    Pioneer Press, MN
    June 13 2005

    So which do you find more rewarding in an artistic experience, breadth
    or depth? Would you rather explore the work of one artist in hopes of
    gaining greater understanding? Or do you find a buffet more satisfying,
    with a variety of styles and approaches to choose from?

    The opening weekend of the Schubert Club's St. Paul Summer Song
    Festival presented such a choice. After tenor Michael Schade offered
    his insights into the presenter's namesake with a concert-length
    Schubert song cycle on Friday, young soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian
    took the SPCO Center stage Saturday and explored the oeuvres of
    nine composers, mixing and matching seemingly disparate works in a
    triumphant recital that showed why there's such a buzz about this
    budding diva.

    Originally from Armenia, the 30-year-old Bayrakdarian has been a
    Canadian citizen since her teen years. As she made her mark with
    regional opera companies north of the border, it became clear that
    she had a talent too big for the world's second-largest nation to
    hold. Soon she won Placido Domingo's "Operalia" competition and a
    Metropolitan Opera award, and has landed on that company's stage in
    a number of prominent roles.

    Although best known as an interpreter of Mozart and Handel, the
    soprano set them aside Saturday and demonstrated some ear-opening
    versatility. Her Rossini reputation precedes her, and an opening
    set of four songs showed why, especially on a whirlwind rendition of
    "La Danza" that left both performer and audience breathless.

    Expertly accompanied by pianist Warren Jones, Bayrakdarian brought
    her acting gifts to the fore on four mazurkas by Chopin collaborator
    Pauline Viardot-Garcia, deftly capturing an adolescent's combination of
    wide-eyed innocence and feigned worldliness on a pair of works wrapped
    around two conflicting looks at love. Each song proved memorable,
    thanks to a voice as technically excellent as it is emotionally rich
    and an expressive face ideal for both ingénue and character actress.

    Not only did Bayrakdarian span the centuries from Rossini to the
    world premiere of a moving song by Pierre Schroeder, but she offered
    a whirlwind tour of moods from the tenderness of an Armenian lullaby
    to the hot-blooded rage of Manuel de Falla. So fully did the soprano
    inhabit each song, she made a convincing case that breadth can be
    served with a lot of depth.

    --Boundary_(ID_7oLhCYVHARjHHxu+kAFYbg)--
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