Shake Makarian: Opera, Piano and Ikebana in Iran

In addition to studying at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory, I attended the Siena Summer Music Academy and participated in the Barga International Festival in Tuscany, where we spent a month preparing for performances. The first performance I starred in was the staging of Benjamin Britten’s “Let’s Create an Opera.” On the last day of the festival, we went to Barga Church with the participants to sing some songs. There was one very old harpsichord to accompany the Haydn and Bach. And since it was very bad acoustic and I did not have an accompanist either, I said I would sing Armenian church songs. They were very happy. I started walking around the empty church to see where the acoustics were best and started singing the songs of our liturgy. In that city we were known as foreigners, participants of courses, so the next day the locals told me: “How interesting your Persian songs were!” I had to explain to everyone that the Persians are Muslims, my songs are Armenian.

I learned from your mother’s memoir that you met Aram Khachaturian in Rome.

In the 1960s, Aram Khachaturian had a wonderful concert at the Audience Hall in Vatican. It was very surprising to see that the Armenians of different cities of Italy came to that concert. One day the Armenians gathered in a cafe to meet with Khachaturian. They told me to take my notes just for case. And there was an opportunity to sing, so I sang Komitas’ Garun a (It is Spring), and Aram Khachaturian’s wife, Nina Makarova, accompanied me. Khachaturian asked me where I learned to sing. “First in Iran, then in Rome,” I replied. “Do you have a conservatory in Iran?” Khachaturian wondered. “We do.” “Do you have a concert hall, a symphony orchestra?” Khachaturian asked again. “We have, and your piano concerto was played by Raffi Petrosyan, and Ruben Gregorian conducted it. But, sorry, master, why are you surprised?” Aram Khachaturian said: “Once in Moscow I met with a general of the Shah of Iran, who said to me, ‘Unfortunately, we do not have a concert hall or an orchestra, otherwise we would have invited you.’ Now I do not know who to believe.” And I said: “It has to do with politics.” On that word, Aram Khachaturian said: “Hey girl, go take your sit!” (laughs).

Indeed, even now many people hardly believe that in the middle of the last century Tehran had centers of classical art. Has the history of the Iranian Opera House been written?

I doubt it. Very few have preserved something, because after the Islamic Revolution our recordings and photos were destroyed. Now some young people are interested, they have started collecting posters, program books and pictures. Maybe they want to create something like a museum. By the way, Maritsa Sanosian, Hakint Vardanian, Hila Gharakhanian, Alenush Melkonian, Sargis Ghookasian, my cousin Ruben Aghabekian and Vahe Adamian sang at the Iranian opera at different times. And in general there are many interesting things to write. Operas were presented at the Roudaki Concert Hall in Tehran, both in the original languages, in Italian, Czech, and sometimes in translations into Persian. By the way, I also played my favorite role in Smetana’s opera, “The Bartered Bride,” presented in the Czech language. Iranian composers also wrote operas, and an Austrian composer named David wrote an opera in Persian. Sometimes Iranian television filmed opera performances, for example, “Madame Butterfly,” where I played the role of Suzuki.

The most important thing was that at Tehran University I wrote my thesis on musicology in Persian about Komitas. It was the first time that a thesis about Komitas was written in that language. It was published in a separate book 10-15 years ago. I brought copies to Yerevan and presented over to the library of the National Conservatory for the use of Iranian students.

And after 1978 you only taught piano.

Yes, although there were rare concerts in the community. I left the stage at the best time of my career, because I have never liked when old singers come on stage, and people say: ah, you should have seen him/her younger in time!

And how did you get close to Charles Aznavour’s family?

While in Paris, my mother met an Armenian family, who were very close to Charles’s mother, Knar, and sister, Aida. Through this family we also got acquainted with the Aznavourians. One year, they invited my mother and my sister Ruzanna to their home in the south of France. Aznavour’s father sang well and played the tar, and since my mother also sang well, one day a song contest was organized. There were many guests in that summer house, 30-40 people sat down to dinner every day. Once Charles, my mother and Ruzanna spoke Armenian around the table, and a French woman present said: “You cannot do it this way, you speak a language that we do not understand.” Charles said. “This is an Armenian house; we speak our mother tongue in our house.”

When Charles came to Tehran, we met every day. He was a very down-to-earth person. Charles once said that he was going to the summer house of a very rich Armenian family for a cocktail party organized in his honor, in the Armenian neighborhood of Vanak in the northern part of Tehran. He left, but in 15 minutes he came back to us and said: “Everyone wanted to show me their properties, I have nothing to do there.”

Apart from song and piano, you have performed in another field.

Ikebana! A Persian woman studied at the Sogetsu School of Ikebana in Japan and returned to Tehran to offer classes. This course lasts for eight or ten years, everyone is surprised that putting a flower in a vase can take so long. I specialized not only in ikebana, but also was awarded the high title of ikebana teaching, being the first Armenian woman to receive that order.

Thank you, Mrs. Shake, for an interesting conversation. I hope that one day your activity in Iran will be appreciated.

Yes, they already appreciate it. In 2016, at the initiative of the Ministry of Education of Iran and the House of Music, an evening in honor of six famous classical singers, including me, took place in Iran. We were awarded an order. There was another Armenian among those six, singer Shake Harutiunian.

I think it is encouraging that in a country where a soloist woman singer does not have the right to go on stage, singers are honored today. I wish you to be in the homeland more often and reach the age of your mother in a healthy state!