Collector coin dedicated to the 100th birth anniversary of Gohar Gasparyan

Gohar Gasparyan was born in Cairo, received a musical education at the local college, and took singing lessons from E. Feldman and V. Karro. She began performing in Cairo in 1940 and became a soloist on Egyptian radio in 1947.

In 1948, she moved to Armenia, where she became a soloist in the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater of Armenia beginning in 1949. Her first performance in Yerevan was in the role of Lakmé (opera Lakmé by Léo Delibes’).

Gohar Gasparyan was called “The Nightingale of Armenia”, her voice was endowed with extensive range, flexibility, richness of tones, and ease of transitions. She held over 4000 concerts and performed on well-known stages around the world, including at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Grand Opera in Paris, and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.

The repertoire of the opera singer included more than 500 works. She performed primary roles in 23 operas, including Anoush and Shushan (A. Tigranian’s Anoush and Davit Bek), Olympia and Karine (T. Chukhajian’s Arshak II and Leblebici hor-hor agha), Rosina (Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville), Marguerite (Charles Gounod’s Faust), Lucia (G. Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor), Violetta and Gilda (G. Verdi’s La traviata and Rigoletto), and others.

From 1964 to 2007, she taught at the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan (professor beginning in 1973).

Gohar Gasparyan was honored with a number of state prizes and awards: State Prizes of USSR (1951) and Armenian SSR (1965), Hero of Socialist Labor (1984), Honorary Citizen of Yerevan (1984), Order of Lenin (1984), Order of People’s Friendship (1984), Order of St. Mesrop Mashtots (1994), and others. A street in Yerevan is named after Gohar Gasparyan.

Obverse: the stage image of Gohar Gasparyan against the background of the A. Spendiaryan National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, Armenian ornamentation.

Reverse: the portrait of Gohar Gasparyan, the images of roses and the nightingale.

Designer: Vardan Vardanyan.

The coin is minted at the Mint of Poland.

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