Liv Tyler married Royston Langdon, the lead singer of the band Spacehog, in a private ceremony at a villa in the Caribbean on March 25, her publicist announced yesterday. Congrats to Liv and her new husband from everyone at TORn! [More]
Month: April 2003
The week following the 2003 TORn Oscar Party our Gaming Editor Flinch had the privledge to visit EA’s HQ in San Francisco, CA. Among the other amazing things he was shown while there, he had the honor of meeting Producer Neil Young, one of those responsible for the Action Game of the Year: The Two Towers. Take a read through our interview and find out what to expect from the Return of the King Video Game! [More] [Gaming Havens]
Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian has held crowds spellbound in music halls all over the world, but she’s never had an audience as big as the one that has bee hearing her sing in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. [More]
Bayrakdarian’s Armenian hymns moved film’s composer to call
The Gazette, Montreal, Saturday, March 29, 2003
Bill Rankin, Canwest News Service
Edmonton – Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian has held crowds spellbound in music halls all over the world, but she’s never had an audience as big as the one that has bee hearing her sing in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
On the phone from Toronto, Bayrakdarian gleefully reminds the caller that The Two Towers went on to win a Grammy.
Bayrakdarian says she got The Two Towers call after Academy Award-winning composer Howard Shore heard some of her otherworldly Armenian hymns on her first CD, Joyous Light.
“The composer heard it and said, ‘This is the voice I’ve been looking for,’” she says.
Both Evenstar – the song she sings on The Two Towers’ soundtrack – and her album’s Armenian liturgical music reveal a singer who clearly loves the sound of the pure human voice.
Her repertoire includes opera – she’s off to Brussels to sing Elisa in Mozart’s Il Re Pastore – but it also features Rachmaninoff’s Vocalese and Villa Lobo’s Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, both songs without words.
Bayrakdarian says she’s after something very personal in her music.
“What I’m most interested in is beautiful singing, not bel canto repertoire, which is Bellini, Dnizetti, Rossini.
“I’m interested in something that speaks to me. That’s my main guideline to everything that I sing, whether it’s opera, recital or concert.”
But what grounds Bayrakdarian’s life are her Armernian heritage and Christian tradition. Christos Hatzis’s Light From the Cross, dedicated to Bayrakdarian and premiered Wednesday at a concert in Edmonton, is an orchestral treatment of Armenian hymns.
The religious significance is at the foreground for the soprano, who began her singing life in her Armenian church.
Edmonton Journal
Hoping to tap that old Middle Earth magic, Dr Pepper/Seven Up is banding with New Line Home Entertainment for the fall DVD/video release of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Elements of the cross-promo include a loyalty-based eBay auction and an “Adventure Card” for partner offers. [More]
Caitlin writes: The beginning of the trailer for “Dumber and Dumberer” is LOTR themed. [More]