Above is the first poster of famous opera singer Gohar Gasparyan (14 December 1924 – 16 May 2007). This poster was made for her USSR tour in 1956.
Gohar Gasparyan was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1924. In 1948, together with thousands of diaspora Armenians, she moved to Soviet Armenia. 3 years later, she was awarded the Stalin Prize. In 1956, Gasparyan was titled a People’s Artist of the USSR.
Gohar Gasparyan became famous for her unusual voice. She was even included in the Guinness Book of World Records! The singer’s vocal range was 3 octaves (while normal human abilities are limited to 2-2.5 octaves) – up until the note G in the third octave!
For example, Maria Callas, famous American-born Greek soprano, was just short of 3 octaves.
Throughout the entire range, the timbre of Gasparyan’s voice would not change, and this was just fantastic. According to Irina Allegrova, before Gohar Gasparyan, the USSR did not know what coloratura soprano was.
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