Barseg Tumanyan
Barseg Tumanyan graduated from the Komitas State Conservatoire in Yerevan under the supervision of the famous baritone Arshavir Karapetyan. He studied at La Scala and at the State Musical Conservatoire in Moscow with the famous Russian bass Evgeny Nesterenko.
He began his professional career singing at the Yerevan State Opera. By the late 80’s, he was a soloist of the Alexandrov Ensemble (the official choir of the Russian Armed Forces) and toured through Russia, America, Canada, and Europe. He received international recognition after a gala concert at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 1989. He has performed the title role in Verdi’s Attila (Covent Garden, Colon Theatre, Astana Opera), Ramfis in Verdi’s Aida (Boston Opera House, Metropolitan Opera), Filippo II in Verdi’s Don Carlo (Los Angeles Opera, Washington Opera, Victoria Opera in Melbourne), the title role in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (Bavarian State Opera, Bonn Opera), Assur in Rossini’s Semiramide (Metropolitan Opera, Concertgebouw), Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen (Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Bastille Opera, Astana Opera), and Méphisto in Gounod’s Faust (Sydney Opera, Paris Opera, Marseille Opera, Bercy Stadium in Paris, Victoria Opera, Lyon Opera). Tumanyan’s repertoire also includes the Ghost of Virgil (Rachmaninov’s Francesca da Rimini), Colline (Puccini’s La Bohème), Timur (Puccini’s Turandot), King René (Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta), Golova (Tchaikovsky’s Cherevichki), Don Basilio (Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia), Fiesco (Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra), Wurm (Verdi’s Luisa Miller), Moser (Verdi’s I masnadieri), the title role in Verdi’s Oberto, Syrttan in Khamidi and Zhubanov’s Abbay, and the title role in Chukhadjian’s Arshak II. He has also performed the tenor parts in Verdi’s Requiem, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle, Handel’s Messiah, and Mozart’s Requiem.
He has collaborated with Antonio Pappano, Bernard Haitink, Ion Marin, Simone Young, Mark Elder, Yuri Simonov, Myung-whun Chung, Julius Rudel, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Richard Divall, Andrew Greene, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Alain Lombard, Mark Ermler, Marcello Viotti, Rico Saccani, John Fiore, Constantine Orbelian, and other renowned conductors, as well as with Nicolas Joel, Ian Judge, Franco Zeffirelli, Johannes Schaaf, Giancarlo del Monaco, and other famous directors.
Since 2014, Barseg Tumanyan has been a leading soloist of the Astana Opera. Nowadays, he is also a professor at the Kazakh National University of Arts and a vocal coach. He has led masterclasses in Marseille, Toronto, Montreal, Berlin, Weimar, Kitzbühel, Shiyan, Teheran, and Astana. He also participated as a jurist in several international singing competitions: President of Armenia Vocal Competition, Delphic Games in Russia, Maria Bieşu Competition in Moldova, Erkegali Rakhmadiev Competition in Kazakhstan, Gohar Gasparyan Competition in Armenia, and the International Vocal Competition in Cologne (Germany).