Raina Kabaivanska is one of the most celebrated opera singers of the last fifty years, real “heroine of melodrama.” After her studies and debut in her own country, Bulgaria, she made her official debut in Italy in 1959 in Vercelli (Tabarro). In 1961 her debut at La Scala in Milan gave way to a glorious career on stages all over the world: the Metropolitan in New York, Covent Garden in London, Salzburg, Rome, Tokyo. Her repertoire includes Verdi, Gluck, Donizetti, Puccini (Tosca with the four hundred and four hundred Butterfly), Britten and Shostakovich. She has been directed by personalities such as Karajan, Bernstein, Abbado and she has worked with directors such as Ronconi, Bolognini, Pizzi, Zeffirelli and with partners such as Del Monaco, Corelli, Pavarotti, Domingo. For many years she devoted herself with tireless passion to teaching and dissemination of opera: she is the professor of the Institute Superior Biennium Canto “Vecchi-Tonelli” in Modena, her home city, and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, not counting the numerous master classes in Italy at the Accademia d’Arte Lirica in Osimo and around the world, most notably the annual meeting in Sofia. She has received numerous awards: “A life for music”, “Viotti”, “Abbiati” “Lorenzo il Magnifico” and many others.
And she is awarded the following honors:
– Medal “Stara Planina” for outstanding contribution in the field of art and the development of democracy in Bulgaria
– Grand Officer of Merit of the Italian Republic
– Commandeur de l’Ordre des Lettres et des Artsdella French Republic