A bit of culture, innit?

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Monday 1 October 2012

Despite being right in the busy centre of the city, we are both sleeping really well. I thought the traffic might disturb us but I think we are so tired from walking in the heat, by night time we are flat out.

Our plan for the day was to visit the Parajanov Museum. Each time we walk somewhere, we take a slightly different route so that we get to see different parts of the city. The museum is close to the gorge - opposite the football ground. It was built for Parajanov but he died of lung cancer before he had a chance to live in it. Although, principally a film maker, he was someone who could turn his hand to anything - drawing, collage, installations. Personally, out of all the museums I have visited, this is my favourite.

Parajanov was an Armenian born in Tiblisi. His father changed their family name to a Russian version so that they had more chance of success. The film that most people may of heard of is Sayat Nova AKA The Colour of Pomegranates.

His art works are extraordinary. I will need to post some pictures to illustrate this. He had a wicked sense of humour but he suffered badly as he was imprisoned twice and was banned from making films and at one time was not allowed to leave the Soviet Union.

We had an English speaking guide who showed us around. It was Rod's first visit so it was good to have someone to fill in the background to Parajanov's life. We had a chat with ?? before leaving and he is going to try and help me learn Armenian via email! Excellent. He works 5 days a week as a researcher at he Genocide Institute and 2 days at the Parajanov Museum. And he's offered to help me, too, what a hard worker!

While we were at the museum, we received a call from Hasmik and made arrangements to meet her at 2pm for lunch. We ate at the cafe opposite our flat, Cafe Central - ԿԱՖԵ ՑԵՆՏՐԱԼ. Slightly different from our usual fare, we had bruschetta, portobello mushrooms and cheese and salads that had a more European fusion feel. Nice, but not necessarily the best food we have had in Armenia. The food was very fresh though which is probably why it is packed with customers day and night.

One thing we have observed in Yerevan which fascinates us, is the number of women wearing the highest heels we have ever seen, walking on pavements that are uneven and full of cracks and potential pitfalls. Every time we think we have seen the highest stilettos, they are surpassed by even taller ones. The shops are choc full of ridiculously high shoes! Cafe Central is a great viewing point for said shoes.

Hasmik then took us to some different shops - I needed nail polish remover and Rod wanted to look at rings. After a leisurely cup of tea in the Rialto cafe in the 'green belt' we parted with Hasmik after making arrangements to meet the next day to do a bit of shopping - weekday Vernissage and the covered market which is housed in the old Russian cinema.

Rod and I then had a couple of hours to prepare for the ballet. We showered and got our best clothes on as we thought that they would have a strict code at the Opera House. The building is close to the flat but we gave ourselves a bit of time as we weren't sure which entrance we would need to go to. We walked around the whole building and it looked dead. We started to have a bad feeling about this - one person we asked just pointed so we went to the door on the other side of the building where we discovered that we were at the completely wrong theatre! We were meant to be at the Sundukian Theatre. We had no map with us and with only 10 minutes to spare we jumped in a taxi. Once we passed the British Embassy we began to worry as it's on the road going out of town. When the taxi stopped in a street in the middle of an housing project, we realised that the taxi driver had taken us to Sundukian Street on the outskirts of town. At this point it was 7pm when the performance was meant to start so we started to give up any hope of getting there for Act one. We had no idea of the protocol for Armenian theatre going so had resigned ourselves to missing a chunk of it.

The taxi went back to the city - we had almost gone full circle. Finally we arrived at about 7.10pm, jumped out and went to the entrance only to be told that we had to go to the back. Armenian buildings are big so we ran round. We should have realised that there was no way the show would start at 7pm - we are in Armenia after all. We got to our seats just as the lights went down and the performance started at 7.15pm. What an experience! Armenian audiences are something else. They talk, eat sweets, photograph and video the performance. When one of the principal dancers came in - obviously a heart throb - the theatre erupted. Half way through they started to clap in time to one of the Cossack dances. Not sure about the quality of all the dancers but the whole evening was really entertaining, especially the curtain call when the audience went completely bonkers.

Rod and I were taken with the set and costume design as it looked rather like Clarice Cliff's pottery designs. It was a shame the music was recorded but I think dance is underfunded and there were at least 30 dancers on stage, as well as about 10 small children who did their turn beautifully. Overall a great evening! Rod is thinking of taking up ballet...

On the way home we treated ourselves to tea and cake at the tea house close to our flat on Abovyan street. Our favourite waitress, Anahit, was in there and her rather crazy co- worker. A nice way to round off the evening.

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