For a soprano accustomed to singing in the world’s greatest concert halls, coming back to Convocation Hall after eight years away was a real homecoming for world-famous soprano and U of T alumna Isabel Bayrakdarian. Dressed in a beautiful ashes-of-rose-coloured gown, Bayrakdarian took the stage at Convocation Hall last Friday for a benefit concert that raised funds toward the refurbishment of the grand hall’s organ.
Bayrakdarian’s program consisted of songs in Spanish, (Manuel de Falla), French (Ravel, Viardot, Delibes, Weill), and Broadway tunes by Kurt Weill and George Gershwin. Some of the works she has already recorded on past albums.
In her performance, Bayrakdarian’s voice was warm and round in all registers, and full of changing colours. She had the ability to bring out both the most elegant phrases and the fastest coloratura. Yet, at times, her top voice had too much vibrato for this reviewer’s ear. And while her French and Spanish were excellent-perfectly suited to the warmth of her voice-her English sounded imperfect. At times there seemed to be consonants missing, and perhaps a few too many “R”s. But this was scarcely on anyone’s mind, the crowd awed by her vibrant personality.
Fully immersed in character, her face and body were alive with emotions, at times with eyes closed, other times flirtatiously flinging her hair back. It was as if she was not only singing, but also dancing to the lively Spanish rhythm. (Perhaps in her spare time Bayrakdarian enjoys a round of flamingo.) One can only imagine what a treat it would be to see her in an operatic role.
Her partner in music, pianist Serouj Kradjian (a Faculty of Music grad), is also her partner in life-a combination that is many a singer’s envy. Only in her early 30s, Bayrakdarian has already recorded five albums, and maintains a demanding operatic and concert career that began in 1997 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. As Bayrakdarian explained during the concert, she started “work” there the day after she graduated from U of T engineering.
Bayrakdarian certainly showed her pride in being an Engineering Science alumna. She ad-libbed the line, “I got my iron ring” into Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm. And during one of two encores, she delighted with a few bars of, “We are, we are, we are, we are, we are the Engineers.” Talk about a prima donna with wit and intellect.
