site.btaOctober 29 Marks 80th Birth Anniversary of Opera Singer Christina Anghelakova

October 29 marks the 80th birth anniversary of Bulgarian opera prima Christina Anghelakova. Born in the town of Isperih, in 1968 she graduated in opera singing at the Bulgarian State Conservatory, under Sima Ivanova. She studied at the Santa Cecilia Music Academy in Rome (1968-1969), with Marcella Gavone and Cesare d'Angelo, and at La Scala Opera House in Milan (1969-1971) with Renata Carosio, Renato Pastorino and Gina Cigna.

Her career began with a three-year contract with La Scala, where she made her artistic debut as Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's “A Masked Ball”. Her subsequent roles included Jocasta from Stravinsky's “Oedipus Rex”, Adalgisa from Bellini's “Norma”, Leonora from “The Favourite”, Elizabeth from “Maria Stuarda”, Giovanna Seymour from “Anna Bolena” and Sara from Donizetti's “Roberto Devereux”.

She also performed at the Piccola Scala (Milan), and toured Italy with the renowned orchestra I Virtuosi di Roma, singing Baroque repertoire. She was molded artistically by the greatest conductors and directors of the 1970s, including Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Claudio Abbado, Bruno Maderna, Renato Fasano, Thomas Schippers, Rudolf Barshai, Vladimir Delman.

She had been a soloist of the National Opera Theatre since 1976 and as a singer made a great contribution to the popularization of Bulgarian operas such as "Khan Krum Yuvigi" by Alexander Yossifov, "Khan Asparouh" by Alexander Raichev and "Salambo" by Veselin Stoyanov. She made numerous radio and television recordings for the Italian RAI television ("Armide" by Gluck, "Luisa Miller" by Verdi), for the Bulgarian National Television and for the Bulgarian National Radio.

Since 1985 she taught opera singing at the National Music Academy in Sofia. From 2001 to 2004 Anghelakova was the first female director of the Sofia Opera and Ballet. Since 2012 she was the artistic director of the Mozart Festival in Pravets and served on the jury of various music competitions in Bulgaria and abroad.

Anghelakova was recipient of the First Prize at the International Opera Competition in Treviso, Italy (1972), the Jury Prize at the International Opera Competition in Ostend, Belgium (1975), the Golden Lyre Award of the Union of Bulgarian Musicians for 1980 (February 1981), the Crystal Lyre Award of the Union of Bulgarian Musicians and Dancers (1999), the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2006).

On May 25, 2015 Christina Anghelakova was awarded the Order of Sts Cyril and Methodius by President Rosen Plevneliev.

She died on May 20, 2018 in Sofia.