Transcaucasia

The first opera building of Tiflis from 1851, the Caravanserai theatre, was burnt down in 1874; a new Tiflis Imperial Theatre , designed by Joh. Gottlieb Schröter in Moorish style, was opened in 1896 and became the present Paliashvili National Opera and Ballet theatre. There is also a theatre museum. 

Outside is the grave and monument of the national composer Paliashvili.

Zacharia Paliashvili (1871-1933) is considered the father of Georgian art music. He composed three operas and other vocal music, promoted the musical life and collected folk music throughout Georgia. In this house he lived from 1915 until his death; it is publicly accessible.

Concert hall, built in 1971 in the shape of a fully vitrofied cylinder after the design by Ivan Chkhenkeli. Over 2000 seats. Philharmonic concerts, jazz festival and other events.

The Conservatory was established in 1917; the curriculum includes musicology. Its building from 1905 has fine decorations. There are two concert halls; a museum displays historical documents and a piano of Rakhmaninov, which he left behind after a tour in 1912.

This museum was established in 1975 as a private collection of Georgian and oriental folk instruments and western mechanical instruments; it was extended after additions by other sources and became a state museum in 1984.

Aram Khachaturian was born in 1903 in the village of Kodzhori ─ south of Tbilisi, now a part of it ─ from a family of Armenian bookbinders. The exact location of his birthplace could not be retrieved. He lived here until 1921, afterwards mostly in Russia, but in Armenia he is most honoured.

Birthplace of Zacharia Paliashvili, °1871; he lived here until 1887. The exhibition focuses on his juvenile years.

Kutaisi, the second city of Georgia, has its own opera house, opened in 1969.

The massive building was designed by Alexander Tamanyan and opened in 1933. It combines an opera and ballet theatre with 1200 seats, named after Spendiaryan, and a concert hall with 1400 seats, named after Khachaturian.

The French chanson singer and composer Charles Aznavour (1924-2018) also appeared in this building. He was of Armenian descent and born as Chahnour Varinag Aznavurian.

Monuments of Aram Khachaturian (by Yuri Petrosian, 1999) and Alexander Spendiaryan (by Ara Sargrian, 1957) and in addition the grave of the latter are in the park in front of the opera.

Spendiaryan (1871-1928) was born in the Crimea, studied with Rimsky-Korsakov, lived and worked mostly in Russia and was also called Aleksandr Spendiarov. Nevertheless his Armenian descent played a role in his works and particularly in the nationalist opera Almast , at which he worked from 1918 until the end of his life. After performances all over the Soviet Union, the Armenians had to wait until 1933, when their opera house was opened with Almast; the composer had already died five years before.

Spendiaryan lived in Russia until 1924; only his last four years he spent in this house in Armenia’s capital. It is publicly accessible.

Aram Khachaturian (1903-78) is best known from his ballets Gayane (containing the popular Sabre Dance) and Spartak. He was more a Soviet than an Armenian composer and stayed only sporadically some time in Yerevan. In one of these temporary houses is the Khachaturian Museum, which is worth visiting.

Khachaturian was buried at the Pantheon. There is also the grave of one of the most interesting Armenian personalities: the singer, composer and ethnomusicologist Komitas (1869-1935). He composed songs, sacred works, piano pieces and arrangements of the large amount of folk music which he collected. Near the Pantheon cemetery a brand new Komitas museum, concert hall and research centre was opened in 2014. The exhibition presents a comprehensive view on Komitas’ life and work.

The State Conservatory, established in 1923, bears Komitas’ name.

Monument of the famous French chansonnier Charles Aznavour (1924-2018). He was born in Paris from Armenian parents and baptized as Chahnur Vannag Aznavuryan.

Between 1881 and 1910 Komitas lived and worked in Armenia’s religious centre, only to be interrupted by four years of study in Tiflis and Berlin. He was also ordained a priest (vardapet). After that he spent five years in Turkey, until he was imprisoned in 1915, during the era of the ‘Armenian Genocide’; finally he landed in Paris, where he broke down and died. His monument is opposite the entrance of the cathedral, the centre of the Armenian Apostolic Church which goes back to the 4^th century.