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# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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Raina Kabaivanska
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Raina Kabaivanska was born in Burgass, Bulgaria, on the Black Sea.Her father was a veterinarian and a writer; also a talented inventor, as he designed and realized Balkantourist, the Bulgarian Tourist Association. Her mother was a professor of physics.. Raina always lived in Sofia and studied there. As a child she played the piano and sang accompanying herself on a small accordeon. As a student at the Sofia Conservatory she was a soloist in the Artistic Collective of the Workers’ Army and played and sang popular opera arias for soprano and mezzo.
For a few months she was a member of the chorus at the Sofia Opera House, as a soprano. In the final end-of-term production of the Conservatoory. In the end-of-term spectacle of her last Conservatory year she took part in Tatyana’s Leter Scene from Tchaykovsky’s Eugene Onyegin amd in the final scene of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera.
Kabaivanska’s working relationship with La Scala remained intense during the ‘60’es (Falstaff, Busoni’s Turandot, Suor Angelica, Don Carlos, Mefistofele, Rien-zi). But her activity in the States was even more intense and profitable: at the Met and in the biggest American cities (Chicago, Washington, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas and so on) our artist polished all those roles that later gave her glory with humility and concentration.
Kabaivanska’s discography is hampered by the fact that she was always outside the major record corporations in the West.; but it does contain some precious discs. In the mid-seventies FONIT- CETRA made her record two elegant recitals, one of Puccini arias under Gianandrea Gavazzeni ‘s history-making baton, one of Russian chamber music with piano accompaniment. Between 1979 and ‘81 RCA distributed a few beautiful recitals ranging from Cherubini to Puccini. In the mid-eighties this artist was able to make accurate complete recordings of five of her greatest roles: Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Adriana Lecouvreur and Francesca da Rimini.
In the current stage of her career, Kabaivanska is still digging in the treasure of XX century in musica. She has tackled The Merry Widow , non just as a purely frivolous divertissement , but as a milestone in XX century opera. Her latest acquisitions have been Janacek’s Jenufa in the original Czech text and the musical Lady in the Dark by Kurt Weill . Very soon she is expected to sing the Countess in Pikovaja Dama at the San Carlo in Naples and in 2006 Hérodiade in Strauss’s Salome in the little-known French-language version, at the Fenice in Venice. In such a wealth of languages and styles one must not forget the Kabaivanska who sings chamber music , from Beethoven’s Italian Lied “Ah, perfido!” to the lyrics by Sciostakovich.
Web sites:
http://www.rainakabaivanska.net/ - Official website |
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Portret
Raina Kabaivanska
Mega Music
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