The prince charming of Armenian pop - Armenian Reporter

Garbis Zobian in Dame de Prague (Ghermann).Above: GarbisZobian (DonJose) and BlancheThebom in Carmen(1960).in detail. Contingency is the fruitof human ignorance.There are a few factors in thematter at hand. First, there werealready good-quality recordingtools in existence, which couldrecord the natural beauty of thehuman voice.Zobian was born one monthafter the Armenian Genocide.That unspeakable carnage, to allappearances, was condemned byforemost politicians, intellectualsand artists.God, who had generously endowedthis child, could not accommodateHimself to the lossof Garbis; therefore, He savedmother and child from inevitabledeath.It is undeniable that the mother’ssuffering and restless state ofmind had an effect on the formationof the young Zobian’s spiritualworld during the period he wasnursed by her. (So did her subsequentoral histories too.)Garbis Zobian in Othello.Garbis Zobian in Carmen (Don Jose).The second factor is that God hadgiven the Armenian people such talentedand well-known singers as PietroSacinari, who was of Armenianbackground, Armenag Shahmuradianand Arman Tokatian. The timehad ripened, and the next peak hadto be born. That was Garbis Zobian.For some, all this may perhaps seemstrange, but, for me, that is in conformitywith universal law. Zobianhad to be born.I’m glad that, in my early youth,I had the opportunity to hear thesinger from the stages of the YerevanOpera Theater and the largeconcert hall of the ArmenianPhilharmonic Orchestra. Subsequently,while working as editorof musical programming for theState Committee of Radio andTelevision in Yerevan, I becamequite familiar with the performingart of not only Zobian but alsoother eminent Diasporan Armenianmusicians.It is appropriate to note here theconsistent work done by the chiefeditors, Armen Hovhannisian andAndranik Chalgushian, and allthe employees of the Armenianmusical editorial department, inassembling the existing recordingsof Diasporan Armenians andmaking new ones.The writers of articles stating thatC12 Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture 11/10/2007