Armenia: The Bradt Travel Guide - Softcover

Holding, Nicholas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841623458 ISBN 13: 9781841623450

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides, 2011

Synopsis

Armenia is in many ways an enigma: a strongly Christian country yet ruled for most of the last 2,000 years by outsiders who were not Christian; a country where the symbol of Mount Ararat is omnipresent even though the biblical mountain is now in Turkey; a country where the cooking is Middle Eastern but the street life southern European. Bradt's Armenia guides you to the country's many monasteries, Selim caravanserai, the field of 900 intricately carved cross-stones at Noratus, the petro glyphs of Mount Ishkhanasar and the museums and markets of Yerevan. There is extensive information about natural history and the arts as well all the practical information needed to explore this fascinating country.

About this title

About the Author

Author Nicholas Holding died after publication of the second edition of Bradt's Armenia. Deirdre Holding, the author's widow, accompanied him on all previous research trips and shares his passion for the country.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A Night at the Armenian Opera

The performance of Verdi's Il Trovatore was due to start at 19.00. Payment of AMD 3,500 had secured us good seats in the stalls and we were there promptly. We purchased a program, which gave us a synopsis of the plot in Armenian (only). We noticed that few others bought program – the opera was being sung in Italian, but either most people knew the plot already or the desire for comprehension was not great.

At 19.00 the theatre was almost empty. People continued to arrive and it was evident that 19.00 didn't mean 19.00. Finally at 19.20 the house lights dimmed and the orchestra pit, complete with players, was raised one foot. It was clear that 19.20 was a fairly arbitrary starting time. People continued to arrive, pushing their way past those already seated.

Anyone who has read in novels descriptions of theatrical performances in Britain in the 18th or early 19th century will be able to imagine what it was like. Members of the audience chatted together – some of them paid no attention to the stage. The person sitting next to my wife used his mobile phone on a number of occasions. (When he wasn't on his phone, he was swigging from a bottle or eating).

Behind the babble of conversation, the performance itself was of a commendably high standard: in particular the singing was better than one would find in this piece in many western European theatres.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1841623458
• ISBN 13: 9781841623450
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 256