Raina Kabaivanska
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Operatic soprano
- academic teacher
Raina Kabaivanska | |
|---|---|
Райна Кабаиванска | |
 Kabaivanska as Tosca with Enrique Baquerizo in Madrid, 2004 | |
| Born | 15 December 1934 Burgas, Kingdom of Bulgaria |
| Citizenship | Bulgaria and Italy |
| Education | Bulgarian State Conservatoire |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1957–present |
| Awards | Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2000) |
| Website | rainakabaivanska |
Raina Yakimova Kabaivanska OMRI (Bulgarian: Райна Якимова Кабаиванска; born 15 December 1934) is a Bulgarian opera singer, one of the leading lirico-spinto sopranos of her generation, particularly associated with Verdi and Puccini, although she sang a wide range of roles.[1]
Born in Burgas, Bulgaria, Raina studied in Sofia with Prokopova and Yosifov, and made her debut at the Bulgarian National Opera in Sofia as Tatjana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin in 1957.[1] The following year, she left for Italy for further studies with Zina Fumagalli-Riva in Milan and with Giulia Tess in Vercelli. Two years later she made a breakthrough in Fano, Italy, as Nedda in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. In 1961, she gave her first performance at La Scala in Milan, as Agnese in Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda, opposite Dame Joan Sutherland.[1] She sang widely in Italy, Genoa, Venice, Parma and notably in Turin in 1973, as Elena in I vespri siciliani, in the only production ever directed by Maria Callas (a collaborative effort with Giuseppe Di Stefano).
In 1962, she made her debut at both the Royal Opera House in London, as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as Nedda. She went on performing at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Paris Opéra, the Vienna State Opera, the Budapest Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, the Dallas Opera, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, etc.
She also appeared in a few opera films, notably Pagliacci, opposite Jon Vickers in 1968, Il trovatore, opposite Franco Bonisolli, in 1975, and Tosca, opposite Plácido Domingo, in 1976.
Kabaivanska has received the following international opera awards: Bellini (1965), Viotti d'Oro (1970), Puccini (1978), Illica (1979), Monteverdi (1980), the Award of Accademia 'Medici' – Lorenzo il Magnifico, Florence (1990), the Grand Prix 'A Life, Dedicated to the Music', Venice (2000).[2]
Kabaivanska delivered a performance of the "Ave Maria" from the opera Otello by Giuseppe Verdi to open the funeral mass for Luciano Pavarotti in Modena, Italy on 8 September 2007.[3]
Kabaivanska also played the Countess in Tchaikovsky's Pikovaya dama in a series of five performances (31 January – 19 February 2008) at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse.[4]
She is a professor in Italy at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, at the Vecchi-Tonelli Music Institute in Modena, and at New Bulgarian University in Sofia.[5]
Repertory
Honors
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic – 7 December 2000
