In a piece of correspondence, great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi once wrote: „Do not try too hard to teach a singer how to sing. Provided he has got a devil on his back he knows how to sing.” These words perfectly suit Ghena Dimitrova, a foremost Bulgarian opera diva who triumphed across the world with her powerful Verdi repertoire.
While on a visit to the house of birth of the great singer, one might take it for an opera set design. The street that goes to it turns left and then right to reach a hill with a vista to the church. As a child Ghena sang in the school choir in her native village of Beglezh and took part in all public holidays there. In spite of her talent and desire to sing, her father opposed her plans to choose music for a career. So, in 1959 when she graduated from high school, the girl joined admission exams at the University of Medicine in the town of Pleven. After that she left for Sofia to see her sister and used the occasion to join admission exams at the Conservatory (today the National Academy of Music).
Admitted with zero music training she counted on her exceptionally good ear for music and on her luck to be trained in the class of renowned pedagogue Hristo Brambarov. He once said that Dimitrova had a voice that appeared once every 100 years. She continued working with Brambarov after she was given a job at the Sofia Opera House in 1965. The Bulgarian National Radio Golden Archives keep an interview of music critic Marin Bonchev in which Ghena Dimitrova revisited her studies at the Conservatory and her first steps on professional stage.
“My career in opera started in Bulgaria after I graduated from the Conservatory. Reaching the operatic stage has cost me very hard work. I cannot remember when exactly I first listened to opera, but all the music I used to listen to in the 1950s made me think of the voice I had. It was discovered by my teachers in secondary school and I was encouraged to go for opera. I cannot say my path has been easy because I had not been properly trained in music during my green years and as I enrolled in the Conservatory, I had to start from scratch, from A, B, C.”
In 1970 Ghena Dimitrova won First Prize at the Fourth International Opera Competition in Sofia. This is accepted as the start of her career because she was given the chance to go for a specialization in Italy.
Ghena Dimitrova started her career with Puccini operas and reaped success across the world starring in them. Verdi however was the pillar of her career – in her own words. “I have sung the parts of all his heroines and I have been sincere interpreting them”, she once said. Verdi is a composer who carries all opera singers on his back.”
Exceptionally open and frank with people, Ghena had her heart on her tongue and always told her students what she thought of their skills. To her opera was a temple where she taught the philosophy of life. The designer of her costumes Vasil Opev confirmed that: „There are many examples of her kindness to people as she tried to help with whatever she could do.” He remembers her flawless costumes that no one believed were made in Bulgaria. So, after every show in which she sang she announced also the costume designer’s name: she wanted to tell the world she was a Bulgarian singer appreciating and preserving Bulgarian culture. Writer Alexander Abadzhiev, author of a book dedicated to the singer, recounted the story of her last appearance on stage on 27 January 2001 on the occasion of Verdi’s death centenary. Since 1996 until her death she switched to training young singers, though for no obvious reason the National Academy of Music refused to accept her on their payroll.
In one of her last interviews Ghena Dimitrova said: “I have failed to do a great many things in my life, but God endowed me with such a plentiful talent that even when someone put a spoke in my wheel, I still prevailed. The life I lived however was sacrificed for my career’s sake. Now all I dream of is silence”. She disagreed with critics comparing her to other singers and said: “Once you start imitating Callas for instance, this is neither you, nor Callas, right? You must express yourself and all that you have in you. Every talent is like a star that shines with its own light”. The star who had shone at Metropolitan Opera, Arena di Verona and La Scala remained loyal to this principle till the end of her life. On 11 June 2005 she lost a long battle with cancer and left the world aged just 64.
English Daniela Konstantinova
