Welcome to Hayastan 4

A country’s culture is more than just the way its people practice their traditions—it’s a way of life, communication, norms, and values that shape how society is formed. It provides essential social and economic benefits with improved learning, increased tolerance, and opportunities to assemble with others.

So, when we talk, we've got to say the history of the beacons of knowledge like Television, Cinema, Music, Theatre, opera and their astonishing stories, especially in a country like Armenia which has an ancient cultural heritage and was a part of Soviet Union states.

1- Television

Armenia Public Television dates back to September 5, 1955, when the USSR Council of Ministers decided to construct 27 program centers and five transmission stations in the Union Republics. On November 29, 1956, the date of the Sovietization of Armenia, the first program of Armenian television was transmitted.

The official opening of the Armenian television took place on February 9, 1957, as regular programs began to air. Later that year on August 6, 1957, the first news program was transmitted, titled the News of the Week. At first, the news program was not periodical, but by February 1958, the news program became periodical, which resulted in the creation of the news editorial office.

2- Cinema

The cinema of Armenia was established on 16 April 1923, when the Armenian State Committee of Cinema was established by government decree. The National Cinema Center of Armenia (NCAA), founded in 2006, is the governing body of film and cinema in Armenia. The NCAA preserves, promotes, and develops Armenian cinematography and provides state financial support to full-length feature, short, and animation projects. The Director of the NCAA is #ShushanikMirzakhanyan, and the headquarters are located in Yerevan.
The first Armenian film with an Armenian subject known as "#HaykakanSinema" was produced in 1912 in Cairo by Armenian-Egyptian publisher #VahanZartarian. The film premiered in Cairo on 13 March 1913.

In March 1924, the first Armenian film studio: Armenfilm (Armenian: Հայֆիլմ "Hayfilm," Russian: Арменкино "Armenkino") was established in Yerevan, starting with Soviet Armenia (1924), an Armenian documentary film.

#Namus was the first Armenian silent black-and-white film (1925), directed by Hamo Beknazarian and based on a play of #AlexanderShirvanzade describing the ill fate of two lovers, who were engaged by their families to each other since childhood, but because of violations of namus, the girl was married by her father to another person. The first sound film, Pepo was shot in 1935, by director #HamoBeknazarian.

3- Music

Armenian music dates back to the 3rd millennium BCE and is a long-standing musical tradition that encompasses diverse secular and religious, or sacred, music (such as the sharakan Armenian chant and taghs, along with the indigenous khaz musical notation). Folk music was notably collected and transcribed by #KomitasVardapet, a prominent composer and musicologist, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who is also considered the founder of the modern Armenian national school of music. Armenian music has been presented internationally by numerous artists, such as composers #AramKhachaturian, #AlexanderArutiunian, #ArnoBabajanian, #HaigGudenian, and #KarenKavaleryan as well as by traditional performers such as duduk player #DjivanGasparyan.

https://twitter.com/AhmdIbrahim09/status/1473424066841305090?s=20

4- Theater

The Armenian Theatre has its roots in the theatre of Ancient Greece, it was a natural development of ancient religious rituals when hired professional gusans (troubadours), sang the praises of the nobleman's ancestors in lengthy verses. Singers of lamentations or tragedians were known as voghbergus, and those participating in festive ceremonies were called katakagusan (Comedians).

Tigran's son, Artavazd II, wrote several Greek tragedies, orations, and historical commentaries which survived until the second century A.D. Artavazd built the second permanent public theatre of Armenia in the old capital of Artashat. The tragedies of Euripides and the comedies of Menander were regularly produced there. He is considered the first Armenian playwright and director of Classical Armenian Theatre. Plutarch mentions that the Bacchae of Euripides, directed by Artavazd, was presented there in 53 B.C.

Archeological excavations made in the fort of Kaitzun Bert in Lori have uncovered numerous statues of actors and masks of animals and birds, which confirm the descriptions given by historians.

5- Opera

The ground-breaking of the Opera Theatre took place on 28 November 1930 during the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of Soviet Armenia. On 20 January 1933, the building was officially opened with Spendiaryan's Almast opera performance. Its building was designed by the Armenian architect Alexander Tamanian. It consists of two concert halls: the #AramKhatchaturian concert hall with 1,400 seats and the Alexander Spendiaryan Opera and Ballet National Theatre with 1,200 seats.
Soon after the theatre foundation, a ballet troupe was established. Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was the first ballet performance in 1935.

Based on Tamanian's design and under the supervision of his son the theatre hall was completed in 1939, and the opera building was renamed after #AlexanderSpendiaryan. Large-scale construction works did not finish until 1953 when the whole building was finally completed with its current shape.

#Armenia #Komitas #Opera #Television #Cinema #Music