Barno Ismatullaeva, Uzbek Soprano

We went to a concert of classical music yesterday (which does not happen often). It was dedicated to the Nobel Prize award to the European Union, and featured young Uzbek artists - the Symphony Orchestra of Tashkent Academy of Music and a number of soloists. I was pleasantly surprised to find a wonderful young soprano here in Tashkent. Her name is Barno Ismatullaeva, and she sang 'Musetta's Waltz' from Puccini's 'La Boheme'. I was thrilled by the very first notes and remained fascinated and fully engaged till the end of the aria. Barno has a lovely soprano, warm and emotional, and she uses this golden instrument really well. Not just me, but everyone seemed to be impressed. I am certainly not an expert in music, but I enjoyed listening to her so much - I now want to see her in opera. I might become a theater goer!

I found her on Youtube; this is a different aria ('Mimi's Story'), but I was pleased to listen to it, too, recalling yesterday night when I was privileged to hear Barno live.

Barno is beautiful, too - a classic Uzbek beauty, like a girl from a miniature painting - but the greatest part of an artist's charm to me is in the talent, the energy she irradiates, the inner strength... I know these are very banal things to say. She needs to be heard and seen to be appreciated - and I certainly hope that she will be appreciated by many people. It feels good to have her here, in Uzbekistan.