nicolai ghiaurov, bass,
september 13, 1929

'He possessed a voice of unusually rich and varied colour allied to an excellent vocal technique and remarkable musicality. A vigorous and painstaking actor, as an interpreter he tended to express the strong and violent emotions rather than the finer and more intimate shades of meaning.’^[1]

The great bass-baritone Nicolai Ghiaurov was born this day in 1929 in Velingrad. He followed in a long and illustrious line of bass-baritones from his native Bulgaria. Indeed, Bulgaria seems to possess some quality that produces great bass voices! And one of the very greatest was Ghiaurov.

As a child he sang frequently at family gatherings and initially learned piano, violin and clarinet. He had thought to become an actor but while undertaking his military service, in what almost seems to be a time-honoured tradition, an officer heard him sing in the choir and recommended him for a singing career!^[2] Initially studying with Christo Brambarov at Bulgarian State Conservatory he then moved on to a Leningrad and Moscow.^[3] This period of study from 1950 to 1955 was with the assistance of a state scholarship^[4]. His career was launched with first place at the Concours International de Chant de Paris in 1955.^[5] His professional debut also came in 1955 in Sofia in the role of Don Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia.

His Italian debut came in 1958 in the Teatro Communale in Bologna in Faust.^[6] By the next year he was at La scala in the roles of Boris Godunov and Phillip II – perhaps the two defining roles of his career. From the 1960s onwards he appeared in the major houses, including Covent Garden, Vienna Staatsoper, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where he was established as a favourite with audiences in these roles. He continued to add to his repertoire of Russian and Verdi roles throughout his career.^[7] His most notable recording are Philip II under Solti; Boris and again under Karajan, and as the “sonorous bass soloist in Carlo Maria Giuliani’s recording of the Verdi Requiem”.^[8]

He died in Modena on the 2 June 2004^[9][10] and is interred in the columbarium of the San Cataldo Cemetery next to his spouse and great colleague Mirella Freni.