Ara Berberian In 1963 he was promoted from the chorus to singing roles with the NYCO, beginning with Leandro in "The Love for Three Oranges" in April of that year. He sang several more roles with NYCO through 1967, including Collatinus in "The Rape of Lucretia", the Commandant in "Don Giovanni", the Major-Domo in "Capriccio", Osmin in Mozart's "Abduction from the Seraglio", and Tiresias in "Oedipus rex" among others. He later returned to the NYCO in 1977 to create the role of Gene Henderson in the world premiere in Leon Kirchner's "Lily". From 1965-1968 Berberian was committed to the San Francisco Opera,
Kurt Rydl "The Abduction from the Seraglio". He debuted in 1976 at the Vienna State Opera as Ferrando ("Il trovatore"). From there he went on to sing Colline ("La Bohème"), Pimen ("Boris Godunov"), Grand Inquisitor ("Don Carlo"), Commendatore ("Don Giovanni"), Osmin ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"), Rocco ("Fidelio"), Daland ("The Flying Dutchman"), Roger ("Jérusalem"), King Henry ("Lohengrin"), Raimondo ("Lucia di Lammermoor"), Geronte ("Manon Lescaut"), Talbot ("Maria Stuarda"), Veit Pogner ("Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg"), Bartolo ("Il Barbiere di Siviglia"), Titurel and Gurnemanz ("Parsifal"), Sparafucile ("Rigoletto"), Fasolt ("Das Rheingold"), Hunding ("Die Walküre"), Fafner ("Siegfried"), Hagen ("Götterdammerung"), Ochs ("Der Rosenkavalier") Morosus ("Die schweigsame Frau"), Landgraf