Two Georgian opera singers perform in Japan

Two Georgian opera stars will shine on stage at a prestigious theatre in Japan.

Local opera singers Iano Alibegashvili (commonly known on stage as Iano Tamar) and Ketevan Kemoklidze will perform Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Forza del Destino [The Force of Destiny] before a Japanese audience at the New National Theatre of Tokyo from April 2-14.

This work from Verdi's middle period tells of the cruel fates and bloody end of Leonora, the daughter of a Spanish Marquis and descendant of the royal family of the Inca Empire Don Alvaro and Leonora's brother Don Carlo.

Kemoklidze, who sang the title role in Carmen in January 2014 to great acclaim, will play the role of Preziosilla. She first performed this role at the Washington National Opera in 2013.

The Georgian-born artist received the Special Prize of Teatro alla Scala at H.G. Belvedere competition, and she was admitted in the Academy of Teatro alla Scala without an entrance exam.

Throughout her career she has won several international voice competitions, including the Domingo’s Operalia, the Concourse International de Chant de la Ville de Toulouse, the Viñas Competition of Barcelona, the Belvedere International Competition in Vienna, the Obraztsova International Vocal Competition in Saint-Petersburg and the Georgian Musicians National and Youth Competitions.

Kemoklidze made her film debut as Adriana Ferrarese (Donna Elvira) in famous Spanish film director Carlos Saura’s film ‘Io Don Giovanni’, having won a special prize at various International Film Festivals.

Meanwhile Georgian soprano Iano Tamar will perform the role of Leonora, who is deeply in love with Don Alvaro, a young nobleman from South America, and in order to remove any suspicion as to Leonora’s purity, Alvaro surrenders himself.

Iano Tamar was born in Georgia and studied piano, music and singing at the Tbilisi State Conservatory.

"I am very excited and nervous to perform this opera in Japan. I will sing it after nine years and it’s hard to do now,” she told a local online magazine.