Salzburg’s overnight sensation is daughter of…
mainAsmik Grigorian, who took Salzburg by storm this weekend as the new Salome, is a Lithuanian soprano who has sung at the Theater an der Wien, the Berlin Komische Oper and Covent Garden. Last summer, she was a highly creditable Marie in Salzburg’s Wozzeck.
As of this morning, she’s a world star.
Asmik, 37, is the daughter of the late Armenian tenor Gegam Grigorjan, one of the earliest pillars of Gergiev’s Mariinsky ensemble, a performer who neither sought the limelight nor ever gave less than his all. Gegam died in 2016 and is sorely missed.
Asmik’s mother is the Lithuanian soprano Irena Milkevičiūtė.
photo: Salzburg Festspiele
Wonderful full-bodied performance by Grigorian, but the production is bizarre regietheatre. Best to watch it with volume turned up and the video off!
Something about her reminds me of the young Dawn Upshaw (but with a little more voice).
She is an absolute sensation – aided and abetted by an inspired Welser-Most and first class ensemble. It more than made up for the awful provincial casting in Magic Flute and the unbelievably miscast Goerner as Sarastro.
As for Magic Flute, I agree. I heard it via Bavarian Radio Classic (BR Klasik) podcast, and I could not believe my ears when hearing Matthias Goerne as Sarastro. Vocally, with the exception of the Queen of the Night and the Three Boys, was not thrilling. It was even hard to believe that the band in the pit was the Vienna Phil, driven to insane tempi and audible mishaps, by Constantin Carydis. The reviews in teh major Austrian outlets were, to put it politely, not enthusiastic.
Let’s hope Theresa May enjoyed it at least when she went!
She is an absolute sensation – aided and abetted by an inspired Welser-Most and first class ensemble. It more than made up for the awful provincial casting in Magic Flute and the unbelievably miscast Goerner as Sarastro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9tS04iPXqQ
Available on Medici.tv
Asmik Gregorian is a wonder! I saw her live as Marie in Wozzeck, she was the best Marie I have ever heard n my life!
https://basiaconfuoco.com/2016/08/19/wozzeck-zaterdagmatinee/
This doesn’t come as a surprise. She is a hard working, unassuming singer-actress who has never once given less than her all. Her Enchantress at Theater an der Wien was fabulous. Here an excerpt, Kuma’s Act I aria:
https://youtu.be/9zpvWqhGf_A
Salome and Johannaan are excellently sung – the remaining voices do not impress at all. Herodes and Herodias are totally miscast. Cannot understand why most reviews are so excellent. Welser Möst’s tempi one also be the theme of a discussion, especially why they are so slow in the first half. The staging, that is an affair à part, but today, we opera-lovers have to cope more and more with far-fetched, mostly out-of-taste-nonsense, such as, incidentally, the staging of both this year’s Salzburg “Zauberflöte” and “Lohengrin”.