Rosy-Anoush Svazlian

BY H. BALIAN

Decades ago, in the Alexander Spendiaryan Opera and Ballet Theater, a tradition was established. World-recognized Diaspora Armenian singers, such as Lusin Amara, Lili Chukasyan, Ara Beberyan, Anayis Bozabalyan, and Garbis Zobyan, were invited as guest performers. Today we are happy to hear the Armenian opera on stage once again with young Diaspora Armenian singers whose dreams have been to be revived by Armenian music lovers.

Recently we have become listeners to American Armenian singer Rosy Svazlian’s role of ‘Anoush’ from Armen Tigranian’s famous opera, who attained her initial education in music in violin with her father Gerard Svazlian who for a long time has been and continues to be the violinist of the San Francisco Opera orchestra. Later on she continued her music education in piano for nearly over 10 years. After she decided to pursue her carrier in vocal, therefore she moved to Milan where she studied in vocal at ‘Verdi’s’ Conservatory and completed her master’s degree with Maestros Mastino and Tonini.

Rosy faced serious challenges singing an Armenian Opera. She had to overcome the language difficulties, since English was her first language; however thanks to her parents’ relentless efforts of teaching her Armenian, she finally mastered her mother tongue. “Anoush” was a lover, who through her performance had to overcome her parent’s, brother’s, the public’s and other villagers’ objections.

The Armenian spectator had already become acquainted with various versions of ‘Anoush.’ Some had impression of an ‘Anoush’ in love, while the others thought of her as a villager. And since art must mirror beauty, everything must be done artistically. Thanks to her beautiful voice and her artistic talent, she constructed the artistic image of her ‘Anoush.’

Rosy-Anoush was in total control of her breathing tempo and voice flow because of which her musical notations were sounding highly cultivated, expressed with effortless flight of beautiful sounds. Her talent as a singer helped her provide a more expressive version of ‘Anoush.’ It was understood that her excessively short time-frame of preparing for her role demanded strong willpower under intense pressure. It is also worthy to note that the opera was directed by Garen Durgarian and “conducted by Atanes Arakelian, who helped bring the opera to life.

When we requested the opinions of Vilen Charchoglian, the former concertmaster of the symphony orchestra of the Opera Theater who is currently one of the conductors, he said: “I listened to Rosy with great pleasure. I also heard her sing with Placido Domingo. When she comes out on stage, you would think that the stage is filled with her aura. She is very artistic and musical. The impressions of ‘Anoush’ are very authentic and beautiful. By listening to her, you receive a lot of pleasure.”

Having heard the impressive Anoush Opera, the audience members gave a warm and standing ovation to Rosy once she left the stage.

Let’s wish Rosy-Anoush Svazlian new achievements in her difficult and diligent profession while keeping the hopes of listening to her once again in the motherland alive.