Lamara Chkonia

Lamara Chkonia (27 December 193014 March 2024) was a Georgian soprano. As one of a number of opera singers who made contributions to the vocal culture of Georgia and the former Soviet Union, Lamara was one of the few women to break through the Iron Curtain.

Early years Chkonia was born in Georgia (then part of the Soviet Union as the Georgian SSR), to a theatrical and musical family. Her uncle , a writer and a director of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre, was executed in 1937 during the Great Purge. At Tbilisi State Conservatoire, she studied with Valerian Cashelli, who had performed at Milan's La Scala and other opera houses in Italy for several years. Under his tutelage, her art was influenced by the Italian school of opera. After her tenure at home in Georgia's Tbilisi Opera, she was accepted as a leading soloist of the Kiev National Opera and Ballet Theatre. During that time, she debuted in productions of other famous theaters including the Kirov Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg.

Chkonia's repertoire consisted of about 40 opera roles, including the title roles of Verdi's La traviata, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, and the title role of Daisi by Zakaria Paliashvili. including 15 CDs (over 250 works) for the "Golden Fund of the USSR" with the National Radio of Moscow, Tbilisi, and Kiev with the participation of the Soviet Union best symphony orchestras. She made several concert tours outside of the Soviet Union, where she received praise from critics.

Success and international recognition Chkonia won competitions, including the Glinka Competition held in Moscow, the Sofia Competition held in Bulgaria, and the Prague Spring held in Czechoslovakia. She also won the Best Actress award at the Madame Butterfly Competition held in Japan. She was the first female singer from the former Soviet state of Georgia to become a vocal competition laureate. She appeared on stages of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Japan.

Later life and death In 1996, Chkonia moved permanently to Madrid, where she lived with her youngest daughter, soprano Eteri Lamoris, and her family. During this period, Lamoris maintained an active international career performing across Europe and the Americas. Chkonia engaged in teaching and occasionally conducted master classes in France and Portugal. With 40 years of experience, she nurtured many singers, including her daughters Eteri Lamoris and Natela Nicoli.

Around 2010, Chkonia returned to Georgia. Her 80th birthday was marked by gala concerts in Kyiv, Ukraine (1 March 2011) and in Batumi, her birthplace (1 September 2011), both produced by Eteri Lamoris.

Chkonia died on 14 March 2024, at the age of 93. The prime minister of Georgia, Irakli Kobakhidze, sent condolences, speaking of her "particularly individual and characteristic performances".

Awards

Chkonia was the first female Georgian singer to achieve laureate status at an international vocal competition, winning prizes at competitions in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Japan between 1960 and 1967. Over a professional career spanning more than thirty years as a stage performer at opera houses across the Soviet Union from 1956, and as a recording artist with eleven albums released on the Melodiya label between 1963 and 1984 , she became one of the most decorated soprano voices of her generation. In 1976 she received the People's Artist of the USSR, the highest artistic honour in the Soviet Union. Across her career she was recognised by the governments of the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Georgia with state decorations, and by cultural organisations in Germany, Italy and Ukraine.

State honours People's Artist of the USSR (1976) People's Artist of the Georgian SSR (1970) Order of Queen Tamara, Republic of Georgia (2011) Presidential Order of Excellence, Republic of Georgia (2011) Honorary citizen of Batumi, Georgian SSR (9 September 1988) Boris Christoff Career Award, Buggiano, Tuscany, Italy (18 September 2010) Twelve-Ray Star "Credo", for contribution to the development of society (GRIN organisation), Ukraine (2011) Premio Cigno D'Oro, Italy (2011)

Competition prizes Excellence Award (優秀賞, Yūshūshō), Miura Tamaki Prize, First Worldwide Madame Butterfly Competition, Tokyo, Japan (1967) Laureate, International Vocal Competition, Prague Spring festival, Czechoslovakia (1960) Third Prize Laureate, International Competition for Young Opera Singers, Sofia, Bulgaria (1963) Third Prize Laureate, All-Union Glinka Vocal Competition, Moscow, USSR (1960)

From 1987, she served as professor at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire.

Repertoire

Opera roles

Role Opera Composer Almirena Rinaldo Handel Paris Paride ed Elena Gluck Serpina La serva padrona Paisiello Susanna The Marriage of Figaro Mozart Cherubino The Marriage of Figaro Mozart Pamina The Magic Flute Mozart Lyudmila Ruslan and Lyudmila Glinka Norma Norma Bellini Linda Linda di Chamounix Donizetti Lucia Lucia di Lammermoor Donizetti Rosina The Barber of Seville Rossini Violetta La traviata Verdi Gilda Rigoletto Verdi Elsa Lohengrin Wagner The Page (Urbain) Les Huguenots Meyerbeer Marguerite Faust Gounod Micaela Carmen Bizet Manon Manon Massenet Marfa The Tsar's Bride Rimsky-Korsakov Tatiana Eugene Onegin Tchaikovsky Iolanta Iolanta Tchaikovsky Cio-Cio-San Madama Butterfly Puccini Mimi La bohème Puccini Musetta La bohème Puccini Maro Daisi Paliashvili Eteri Absalom and Eteri Paliashvili Marikh Absalom and Eteri Paliashvili

Concert and recording repertoire

Work Composer "Exsultate, jubilate" Mozart "Pieta, Signore" Stradella "Se tu m'ami" Pergolesi Ave Maria Schubert Berceuse from Jocelyn Godard Serenade from Ruy Blas Weckerlin "Le Rossignol et la Rose" (Vocalise) Saint-Saëns "La Danza" (Tarantella Napoletana) Rossini Solovey (The Nightingale) Alyabyev Otvernites ne glyadite (Turn Away, Do Not Look) Gurilyov Net, ne lyublyu ya vas (No, I Don't Love You) Bulakhov Krasnyi sarafan (The Red Sarafan) Varlamov Na zare ty yeyo ne budi (Don't Wake Her at Dawn) Varlamov Ne probuzhdai vospominaniy (Do Not Awaken Memories) Gurilyov O, ne tseluy menya (Oh, Do Not Kiss Me) Dyubuk Chto mne zhit i tuzhit (Why Should I Live and Grieve) Dyubuk Domik-kroshechka (Little Tiny House) Bulakhov Ptichka (Little Bird) Gurilyov Pravo, mamenkye skazhu (I'll Tell Mama) Varlamov Grust devushki (Girl's Sadness) Bulakhov Ne khochu (I Don't Want) Dyubuk Georgian Lullaby Chimakadze La Patria (composed for Lamara Chkonia) Machavariani Again You (Georgian Ballad) Kargareteli Golondrina Del Aqua Vals Arditi Buy Violets Vietti Lullaby Gershwin Love Hearts (duet with Natela Nicoli) Weber