Contents

Raina Kabaivanska

Bulgarian opera singer

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2019)

Raina Kabaivanska OMRI
Райна Кабаиванска
Kabaivanska as Tosca with Enrique Baquerizo in Madrid, 2004
Born	(1934-12-15) 15 December 1934 (age 89) Burgas, Kingdom of Bulgaria
Citizenship	Bulgaria and Italy
Education	Bulgarian State Conservatoire
Occupations	Operatic soprano academic teacher
Years active	1957–present
Awards	Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2000)
Website	rainakabaivanska.net

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, she 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.

In 1962, she made her debuts 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 ColóninBuenos 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 OtellobyGiuseppe Verdi to open the funeral mass for Luciano Pavarotti in Modena, Italy on 8 September 2007.

Kabaivanska also played the Comtesse in Tchaikowsky's Queen of Spades, in a series of five performances (31 January – 19 February 2008) at the Capitole de Toulouse.

She is a professor in Italy at the Accademia Musicale ChigianainSiena, at the Vecchi-Tonelli Music Institute in Modena, and at New Bulgarian UniversityinSofia.^[3] She is also a jury member for many prestigious competitions all over the world.

Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic – December 7, 2000

• Operissimo.com

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Raina Kabaivanska.

• Raina KabaivanskaatIMDb
• Official website
• Raina Kabaivanska discography at Discogs

Biography