HrachuhíBassénz

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  • Soprano

About Hrachuhí

In the 24/25 season, Hrachuhi will return to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden for Violetta in La Traviata, she will give her house debut as Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly at Las Palmas Opera and will give her role debuts as Tosca at Opéra de Limoges and Leonore in Fidelio at Busan Concert Hall, Korea. She will give a recital with Helmut Deutsch in Yerevan and will sing Strauss' Four Last Songs and the Brahms Requiem at the Meistersingerhalle Nürnberg.

Conductors with whom she has worked include Antonio Pappano, Johannes Wildner, Alexander Shelley, Marc Tardue, Daniel Oren, Antonino Fogliani, John Fiore, Henrik Nanasi, Marc Minkowski, Antonello Manacorda, Ivan Repusic, Daniele Rustioni, Omer Meir Wellber, Joana Mallwitz, Lorenzo Viotti, Renato Balsodonna, Speranza Scapucci and Giampaolo Bisanti and she enjoys collaborative relationships with stage directors including Laura Scozzi, Calixto Bieito, Mariame Clément, Dieter Kaegi, David McVicar, Elijah Moshinsky and Bruno Ravella.

Hrachuhi Bassenz was born to a musical family in Yerevan, Armenia. After completing her violin studies, she graduated with distinction from singing at the State Komitas Conservatory in her hometown with Professor Gayane Geghamyan. She has been awarded numerous prizes, including "Singer of the Year" and "Audience Award" from the Musiktheater Gelsenkirchen; the Bavarian Art Prize; the 2nd prize of the "Voci Verdiane" international singing competition as well as the "Gold Medal" from the Ministry of Culture and the "Komitas Medal” from the Diaspora Ministry of the Republic of Armenia. She regularly performs in recital with Helmut Deutsch.

Hrachuhí is based in Nuremberg, Germany

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Contact

For availability and general enquiries:

Mark Hildrew

Mark Hildrew

Executive Director

For availability and general enquiries:

For contracts, logistics and press:

Seb Mallet

Seb Mallet

Associate Artist Manager

Representation

General management with Askonas Holt

Season Highlights

Sep 2024
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
La Traviata (Violetta) Alexander Joel (conductor) Richard Eyre (director)
Sep 2024
Yerevan, Armenia
Strauss Programme Recital with Helmut Deutsch
Mar 2025
Opéra de Limoges / Opéra de Vichy
Tosca (title role) - role and house debut Pavel Baleff (Conductor) Silvia Paoli (Director)
Jun 2025
Opera Las Palmas
Madama Butterfly (Cio-Cio San) Francesco Ivan Ciampa (conductor) Antonio De Lucia (director) House debut
Jun 2025
Busan Concert Hall, Korea
Fidelio (Leonore) - role debut Myung Whun Chung (conductor) Asia Philharmonic Orchestra

Selected Repertoire

Bellini

I Puritani (Elvira)   •   Norma (title role - under preparation)   •   Zaira (title role)

Berlioz

Benvenuto Cellini (Theresa)

Bizet

Carmen (Micaela)

Cilea

Adriana Lecouvreur (title role - under preparation)

Donizetti

Emilia di Liverpool (title role)   •   Il Furioso nell‘Isola di San Domingo (Eleonora - under preparation)

Kalman

Die Csardasfürstin (Silva)

Leoncavallo

Pagliacci (Nedda)

Meyerbeer

L‘Africaine (Selika)   •   Les Huguenots (Valentine - under preparation)

Mozart

Cosi fan tutte (Fiordiligi)   •   Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira)   •   Le Nozze di Figaro (Contessa)

Offenbach

Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Antonia)

Puccini

La Bohème (Mimi)   •   Madama Butterfly (Cio-Cio-San)   •   Suor Angelica (Angelica)   •   Turandot (Liu - under preparation)   •   Tosca (title role - under preparation)

Rameau

Les Indes Gallantes (Emilie, Fatime - under preparation)

Rossini

Mois et Pharao (Anai)   •   I viaggio a Reims (Corinna)

Smetana

Prodana Nevesta (Marenka)

Tchaikovsky

Eugene Onegin (Tatiana)   •   Iolanta (title role - under preparation)

Verdi

Il Corsaro (Gulnara)   •   Otello (Desdemona)   •   Simon Boccanegra (Amelia)   •   Stiffelio (Lina)   •   La Traviata (Violetta)   •   Il Trovatore (Leonora)

Sample Programmes

  • Strauss Recital Programme

    "Vier letzte Lieder" - Nr. 4: »Im Abendrot« - Nr. 3: »Beim Schlafengehen« - Nr. 2: »September« - Nr. 1: »Frühling« »Das Rosenband« »Liebeshymnus« »Wiegenlied« »Wie sollten wir geheim sie halten« Pause "8 Gedichte aus 'Letzte Blätter'" - Nr. 1: »Zueignung« - Nr. 3: »Die Nacht« - Nr. 4: »Die Georgine« - Nr. 5: »Geduld« »Wer hat’s getan« Nr. 8: »Allerseelen« (aus: »8 Gedichte aus ›Letzte Blätter‹«) »Heimliche Aufforderung« »Cäcilie« »Ruhe, meine Seele« »Morgen!«

News

Press

  • Tosca

    Opera de Limoges
    Mar 2025 - Mar 2025
    • À commencer par la soprano Hrachuhi Bassénz, bluffante en Tosca. Le timbre rond et pulpeux est des plus séduisants. La projection égale sur toute la tessiture et les aigus impressionnants ne sont pas contradictoires avec une sorte de fêlure qui la présente sans cesse sur le fil, notamment dans son Vissi d'arte rendant son interprétation particulièrement émouvante. La chanteuse impressionne par son sens tragique et son personnage montre une évolution sensible, de la jalouse quasi-comique de l'acte I, à la prise de conscience du II qui aboutit à un personnage fracturé mais digne au III. Une magnifique prestation. translation: Starting with soprano Hrachuhi Bassénz, stunning as Tosca. Her round, luscious timbre is most seductive. The equal projection across the entire tessitura and the impressive high notes are not at odds with a sort of crack that constantly presents her on the edge, notably in her Vissi d'arte, making her interpretation particularly moving. The singer impresses with her tragic sense, and her character shows a sensitive evolution, from the almost comical jealous woman of Act I to the awareness of Act II, which leads to a fractured but dignified character in Act III. A magnificent performance.

  • Le nozze di Figaro

    Royal Opera House Covent Garden
    Jul 2023 - Jul 2023
    • Stéphane Degout is more of a known quantity on London stages. He offered a duly commanding Count Almaviva, complemented and put properly to shame by Hrachuhí Bassénz’s Countess, whose ‘Dove sono’, audience disturbance notwithstanding, brought tears to the eyes. So did their final moment, beseeching and granting forgiveness

    • Countess Almaviva beautifully sung by Armenian soprano Hrachuhi Bassenz

    • Hrachuhí Bassénz as the countess was delicate and powerful, the essence of morally wounded nobility.

    • La Comtesse très humaine et fort émouvante de Hrachuhí Bassénz élève cependant la ligne de chant avec maestria, [Translated] Hrachuhí Bassénz’s very human and moving Countess nevertheless delivers a virtuosic vocal line

  • Otello

    Oper Leipzig
    Mar 2023 - Mar 2023
    • Vermeintlich hintergründigen Desdemona, welche gerade in ihren Höhen so umwerfend wachsweich, himmlisch zart und doch lebhaft von Hrachuhí Bassénz gesungen wird. [Translated] The supposedly enigmatic Desdemona, who is sung by Hrachuhí Bassénz in her heights so stunningly soft, heavenly tender and yet lively.

  • Otello

    Royal Opera House Covent Garden
    Jul 2022 - Jul 2022
    • The Armenian soprano Hrachuhí Bassénz gives Desdemona the much-needed individuality the character deserves. There is true indignation in her denial of Otello’s suspicions about her relationship with Piotr Buszewski’s Cassio. Her wronged victimhood commands Verdi’s great third act ensemble. And before her death she floats her Ave Maria quietly into the heavens. It provided one of the many things about this Otello revival that will live in the memory.”

    • We wait a long time before hearing Hrachuhi Bassénz sing, but it’s well worth the wait. She brings the tricky combination of technical mastery allied to her character’s naive fragility to tell the story of a woman who keeps making bad choices about how to arrest the madness engulfing her and rescue herself from the mortal danger she sees far too late. Bassénz is a compelling presence, never dominating in this most testosterone-fuelled environment, but she takes our eyes and ears with her whenever she is in sight. Her scenes with Emilia (Monika-Evelin Liiv, beautifully understated) are heartbreaking as she realises, and accepts, her fate in a world of Daz-white bed linen that she still can’t see as ill-judged.”

    • Fine though Ermonela Jaho was last time around as Desdemona, it was Armenian soprano Hrachuhi Bassénz that dominated the evening. Although Bassénz had previously impressed as in 2018 as Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), this was another level. Her voice is clearly soprano but has elements of mezzo-like timbre, and so displays a strong lower aspect. More, she is capable of ravishing beauty and pathos (as in her ‘Willow Song’ and, particularly, her ‘Ave Maria’); we the audience felt every twist and turn of her manipulated emotions.

    • Armenian soprano Hrachuhí Bassénz is also outstanding as Desdemona, floating her lines angelically throughout but capable of an explosive reaction to the accusation of infidelity. Her Willow Song, as she prepares for bed in the final act, was exquisitely deliv.

    • As Desdemona, the Armenian soprano Hrachuhí Bassénz made a somewhat tentative start, seeming not entirely comfortable in the gentle lyricism of Act 1 as Desdemona and Otello narrate their tale of courtship. But, she grew in confidence and credibly communicated the strength of Desdemona’s love and her heartbreak at Otello’s hostile rejection. Bassénz was at her best in Acts 3 and 4. When the weeping Otello pushed Desdemona away, Bassénz’s increasingly fraught response – ‘E son io l’innocente/ cagion di tanto pianto!/ Qual è il mio fallo?’ (And am I then the innocent motive of these tears! What sin have I committed?) – was emotively coloured and shaped. The ‘Willow Song’ conveyed both Desdemona’s essential animation of spirit and the waning of her self-belief; it was an engaging narrative swelling with latent emotional currents. The richness of the song contrasted with the ensuing still limpidity of her Ave Maria – some lovely string playing here – which brought forth Desdemona’s own Madonna-like purity. This was refined singing, exhibiting subtle control and insight; it was a pity that the music-drama was interrupted at this terribly tender moment by the enthusiastic audience’s applause.”