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Summer is the time, when music on open stages traditionally sounds in all parts of the globe. In Bulgaria people enjoy the performances at the opera festivals in Sofia, Varna, Burgas and Plovdiv. World famous opera singers take part in those festivals. Among them is tenor Kamen Chanev. He was on the stage in Sofia staring Foresto di Attila by Giuseppe Verdi. A month later he performed it on the stage of the Roman opera-Terme di Caracalla. He worked on the part along with the world famous conductor Riccardo Muti. “He revealed many of the opera secrets to me. After I met him my career went up”, says Kamen Chanev. Stay with us to learn more about the successful career of the Bulgarian tenor. Lets hear a recording from the BNR music collection- Aria di Canio from Pagliacci by Leoncavallo, played by the Symphonic Orchestra of the BNR with conductor Boris Spasov, singing Kamen Chanev. Media describe Kamen Chanev as “leading tenor’, because he performs at the biggest world stages. The Bulgarian however says that this is just his job. In his words the number of performances is not a criterion for someone’s voice quality. Elena Tsvetkova met Kamen Chanev during the rehearsals at Attila Opera in Sofia. She took him back to his child period in his native town of Sliven. “When I was a child, I had to choose between swimming and singing in child choir. I chose the second option, because my mother wanted me to become an opera singer. I made my first steps in the music field with the help of Metodi Grigorov. I was singing in the child choir” Druzna pesen”and later in “Dobri Chintulov” choir. Maestro Grigorov was conductor of the choir at that time. Now I can say that he was the first person to show me the right way. Of course many other people have helped me over the years. Among them are my teachers: Sima Ivanova, Konstantsa Vachkova, Petko Marinov, Pavel Gerdzikov. I was 33 years old when I first left Bulgaria. My first performance on foreign stage was in Romania. I worked with many good musicians there. That is how my career began”, says Kamen Chanev. We will make one more touch in the biography of Kamen Chanev- he specialized singing in “Boris Hristov” music academy in Rome under the guidance of the opera singer Alexandrina Milcheva. Then he worked as a soloist in the National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Sofia as well as in the Prague State Opera. Le us now hear a fragment of the Desert Oratorio by Felicien David, performed by Kamen Chanev, the Bulgarian National Radio Sympnonic Orchestra and the mixed choir at the BNR. Kamen Chanev said for RB that he still questions his skills. He is very critical of himself. This makes him continue improving. He is happy that he is into music, and he says that it is a great pleasure for him to perform the compositions of Verdi. The Bulgarian is a self employed person.” I don’t feel well when I am on salary and I think this is something normal for a musician”, says Chanev and continues: “I think that the artist should always develop. He should constantly change stages. Meeting conductors and singers from other groups contribute to the career growth of a singer. I have been self employed for many years. I have a good music agent and a number of engagements. However I must confess that it is not easy to build a career in the opera field. Unfortunately many people believe in the proverb that coffee and tenor must be Italian. I do not agree with that. There are many good Bulgarian tenors, but the truth is that we are mostly popular with our basso voices, such as Boris Hristov, Nikola Gqurov, Nikolai Gyzelev.” Kamen Chanev became successful through a great deal of persistency, efforts, talent and patience. He lives in Vienna, but he constantly travels. Chanev participates in opera shows in Berlin, Rome, Seoul, Warsaw, Prague, and will soon be on a new stage in the capital of Oman- Muscat. In September he will sing there at the Attila production by Verdi.
