Georgy Isaakyan graduated from the Tchaikovsky Music School of the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan (specializing in violin, music theory and composition).
In 1991 he graduated from the Russian Academy of Dramatic Art (RATI-GITIS) (Prof. Kurochkin’s class). Between 1989 and 1991 he worked as a stage director and a teacher in the Opera Studio of the Yerevan Conservatory, where he produced his graduation work, Tigranian’s opera Anoush.
In 1991 he became a producer at the Tchaikovsky State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in Perm, then, in 1996, its principal director, and in 2001 its artistic director. In 2003 to 2011 he was the artistic director of the Diaghilev Seasons: Perm – St. Petersburg – Paris International Festival.
Isaakyan leads a workshop at the Musical Theatre Directing Department of the Russian University of Theatrical Art (RATI-GITIS).
In 2010 he was appointed artistic director of the Natalia Sats Moscow State Music Theatre for Children, where he produced Prokofiev’s The Love ForThree Oranges, Cavalieri’s La Rappresentazione di anima е di corpo, Bizet’s Carmen, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel (in collaboration with Andris Liepa),Bronner’s Eatable Tales, Orchestra Rehearsal based on Fellini’s film Prova D’Orchestra and Alexander Tchaikovsky’s Life and Phenomenal Adventures of Oliver Twist.
Georgy Isaakyan has done numerous productions including Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, Banevich’s Switch On the Night, Three Images of Love (soiree of 20th-century one-act operas by De Falla, Prokofiev and Poulenc); Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, The Queen of Spades, Mazeppa, Eugene Onegin; Rimsky-Korsakov’s Kashchey the Deathless, Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, Mozart’s Così fan tutte; Opera Pushkiniana – Boris Godunov, A Feast in Time of Plague, The Stone Guest, The Miserly Knight, Mozart and Salieri (awarded the Russian State Prize); Verdi’s Rigoletto, Britten’s Noah’s Ark, Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, Women’s Stories (opera triptych),Bizet’s Carmen (the above-mentioned productions were staged in the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre). Verdi’s La Forzadel Destino (in the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre),Skriabin’s Keistut and Biruta (Helikon Opera),Borodin’s Prince Igor (The Mariinsky Theatre),Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Mazeppa and Iolanta, Dvořák’s Rusalka (Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theatre),Verdi’s Othello (Cheboksary Opera Theatre),Listov’s Sevastopolsky Vals (Omsk Music Theatre),Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Rostov Music Theatre),Verdi’s Aida and Borodin’s Prince Igor (Chelyabinsk Opera and Ballet Theatre),Strauss’ Der Zigeunerbaron (Yekaterinburg Music Comedy Theatre),Ismagilov’s The Ural Ambassadors and Borodin’s Prince Igor (Bashkiria’s State Opera and Ballet Theatre),Puccini’s La Bohème (Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre).
He has also staged a number of productions abroad, including Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Irish National Opera),Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (Latvian National Opera),Verdi’s Don Carlo (Sakai-siti Opera, Osaka, Japan),Puccini’s La Bohème (National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Belarus),Spendiarov’s Almast (Yerevan Opera and Ballet Theatre).
He has produced the Russian premieres of Massenet’s Cinderella, or a Tale of Cinderella, Shchedrin’s Lolita, Shchetinsky’s Bestiary, Handel’s Alcina, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (all of them at the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre) and the world premieres of Sidelnikov’s Chertogon, Rubinstein’s Christ or Seven Attempts of Perception of God, Alexander Tchaikovsky’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Albrecht’s Lord's Prayer, Alexander Tchaikovsky’s Life and Phenomenal Adventures of Oliver Twist. Zhurbin’s Melky Bes. In Yelets he produced the world premiere of Alexander Tchaikovsky’s opera The Tale of the City of Yelets, Tamerlan and Maiden Maria in the open air.
He was the artistic director of the Opera/GULAG project of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre and the Museum of Political Repressions Perm-36, and as part of the project he produced Beethoven’s Fidelio.
Georgy Isaakyan’s productions have won numerous prestigious prizes;eight of them were nominated for the Golden Mask National Theatre Award. Georgy Isaakyan is a winner of the Golden Mask Award as Opera Director for the production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre (2009) and for the production of Prokofiev’s The Love to Three Oranges in the Natalia Sats Moscow State Music Theatre for Children (2012). His production of Cavalieri’s La Rappresentazione di anima е di corpo was awarded with a special prize of the music theatre jury in 2013.
Awards and Honours:
- Honored Artist of Russia
- Laureate of the Russian State Prize
- Laureate of the Volkov Prize of the Russian Government
- Winner of the Golden Mask National Theatrical Award
- Laureate of the Prize for Cultural Achievements awarded by the Governors of Perm and Sverdlovsk Regions
- Winner of the Ballet Magazine Award Soul of Dance in the Knight of Balletnomination.
Productions:
Puccini's La bohème — Stage Director