Migran Armenakovich Erkat

Born Feb. 20, 1921, in Constantinople, Turkey. Soviet Armenian baritone. People’s Artist of the USSR (1977).

Erkat studied singing under E. Cordone at the Verdi Music Lycée in Alexandria; he graduated from the lycée in 1940. Between 1940 and 1943 he performed in Alexandria and Cairo as a radio soloist and a soloist with philharmonic societies. He was a soloist at an opera theater in Cairo from 1943 to 1946.

In 1947, Erkat moved to the USSR and became a soloist with the Yerevan Theater of Opera and Ballet. His roles have included Onegin in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, the Demon in Rubinstein’s The Demon, Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen, and Giorgio Germont, Renato, Iago, and Rigoletto in Verdi’s La Traviata, Un bailo in maschera, Otello, and Rigoletto, respectively. He has also sung the role of Tatul in Spendiarov’s Almast and the title role in Chukhadzhian’s Arshak II.

Erkat has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.