- Born
- Died
- Gegam Grigorian was born on January 29, 1951 in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, USSR [now Armenia]. He was an actor, known for War and Peace (1991), La forza del destino (1997) and Great Arias: La Forza del Destino (1997). He was married to Irena Mackeviciute and Valerija. He died on March 23, 2016 in Yerevan, Armenia.
- SpousesIrena Mackeviciute(19?? - 19??) (divorced, 1 child)Valerija(19?? - March 23, 2016) (his death, 2 children)
- Opera singer (tenor).
- In 1979, he won a year-long scholarship to study at La Scala. In November of that year, he turned up in Trieste, some 250 miles east of Milan, seeking political asylum. He was living in a refugee center while his case was being considered. Within days he had vanished, failing to appear in Milan for his role in Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov". He was not heard from until 1980, when he entered the vocal category of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, coming in second. He was given a permanent post at the Lithuanian National Opera, where he developed a wide repertoire but was little heard of outside Vilnius. In 1989 Valery Gergiev brought him to St Petersburg to join the Kirov Opera.
- In 2000 he returned to Armenia as artistic director of the Yerevan Opera Theatre, a post he held for seven years. He taught and gave master-classes in the country. In 2015 he returned to the Yerevan Opera, where he placed a new emphasis on providing opportunities for younger singers.
- After the Soviet Union disintegrated, he was free to travel again. He made his Covent Garden debut in "Eugene Onegin". Almost 20 years after disappearing from La Scala, he returned to the Italian opera house, singing in Mussorgsky's "Khovanshchina" and Verdi's "La Forza del Destino".
- He played the violin as a child. He studied voice at the Komitas State Conservatory. In the early 1970s he appeared in concerts in West Berlin, toured Russia, and won the Glinka Competition in 1975. At age 25, he made his official opera debut in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" at the Yerevan opera house.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content