Илина Михайлова

Born in Varna, Ilina Mihaylova came to singing by way of the piano, which she began at four. She trained at the Dobri Hristov National School of Arts in her home city, then at the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music in Sofia and finally at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. Her roles are the lyric and coloratura ones — Violetta, Gilda, Rosina, Susanna, Musetta, Adina, Norina, Zerlina — and she sings as a soloist of the opera houses of both Varna and Burgas. She took part in José Carreras's farewell concerts in Sofia and Athens. In Milan she studied in Wilma Borelli's class. Musetta took her to the Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago and her Italian work included Norina and Marie; she joined the Varna company in the 2013/14 season, adding Liù, and in 2022 sang Juliette in its first staging of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette.