site.btaElena Nicolai: My Career Started Like Raging River

"I sang a lot, but I could never get enough of our folk songs." These are words of the great Bulgarian opera singer Elena Nicolai. January 24, 2025 marks the 120th anniversary of her birth.

Between 1934 and 1963, she performed on the world’s most prestigious stages. "My career started like a raging river. I remember how impresarios, when introducing a young singer to a conductor, would first scare them with me—the Bulgarian," Elena Nicolai describes her years in Italy.

She was born on January 24, 1905, in the village of Tserovo, Pazardzhik region, under the name Stoyanka Savova Nikolova. Her father passed away when she was just three years old, and her mother, Parashkeva, left for Germany to study nursing and support her children. Stoyanka was raised by her grandparents, Tolcho and Stoyanka, in Panagyurishte.

Bulgaria - United States - Italy

Stoyanka Nikolova completed her primary and secondary education in Panagyurishte. Her mother returned to Bulgaria and used her earnings from abroad to send Stoyanka to the American College in Samokov to continue her studies. After graduating, she applied to the State Music Academy in Sofia and studied under music pedagogue Prof. Ivan Wolpe. However, she failed the entrance exam because she could not play the piano, despite receiving excellent marks in singing.

Following this setback, in the summer of 1928, Stoyanka Nikolova left for the U.S. She attended summer school in philosophy, took singing lessons, and worked as a stoker’s assistant and a milk delivery worker. Her dream was to study singing in Italy, and in 1930, she applied to the Giuseppe Verdi Music Conservatory in Milan. Competing against 63 candidates for just three spots, she prepared the aria of Delilah from the opera Samson and Dalilah by Camille Saint-Saëns. Prof. Vincenzo Pintorno selected her, exclaiming, "She is a lioness!"

Eighteen lead roles at La Scala

In 1934, Stoyanka Nikolova made her opera debut in the town of Salò near Milan, performing the role of Azucena in Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore. That same year, she adopted the stage name Elena Nicolai, suggested by an Italian impresario due to her regal bearing and resemblance to Queen Elena. The surname Nicolai was derived from her family name.

Experts debated whether her voice was a mezzo-soprano or a dramatic soprano, but the audience embraced her with bated breath. In 1938, Elena Nicolai became a soloist at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where she performed until 1959. She played eighteen lead roles at La Scala in operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Vincenzo Bellini, and Richard Wagner.

Global career

Elena Nicolai toured opera houses in Paris, New York, Vienna, and London. In 1942, she performed for the first time on the stage of the National Opera in Sofia, again as Azucena.

"Throughout my long stage career, I’ve performed nearly 60 roles. Which is dearest to me? Well, all of them, but I’d still say I most enjoy singing Amneris in Aida and Azucena in Il Trovatore. Overall, I love Puccini and Verdi," Elena Nicolai says.

She retired from the opera stage in 1963 to make her cinema debut. Director Vittorio De Sica approached her, inviting her to take the lead role in his film The Boom. He told her he valued her highly as an actress, and she went on to appear in seven of his films.

Elena Nicolai passed away on October 23, 1993, in Milan.