Andreana Nikolova

Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera was the first role Andreana Nikolova sang on the stage of the State Opera Ruse, and her working life has been built there since. She took up singing while at the St Constantine-Cyril the Philosopher school of European languages in Ruse, continued at the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music in Sofia, and was already competing and appearing on Bulgarian and foreign stages as a student. First prizes came at the Puldin and Gena Dimitrova national competitions, a second prize at Svetoslav Obretenov and a prize at Parashkev Hadzhiev; abroad she won the Ferruccio Tagliavini competition in Austria together with the Austrian critics' award, and took third prizes at Iris Adami Corradetti in Italy and at Boris Christoff, with the audience prize there as well. She held a scholarship of the Austrian Musiktheater foundation at the Sofia National Opera and has worked in masterclasses with Norman Shetler, Alexandrina Milcheva, Olivera Miljakovic and Raina Kabaivanska, and for a period with Gena Dimitrova. Eboli, Amneris, Azucena, Carmen and Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi are her central roles, beside the mezzo parts in Le nozze di Figaro, Cavalleria rusticana and Gianni Schicchi; Mahler's Second belongs to her concert work, and she has sung in Salzburg, Zurich, Strasbourg, Solothurn, Winterthur, Bucharest and Athens. Dalila in Samson et Dalila and Jocasta in Stravinsky's Oedipus rex belong to the same repertoire, and she continued her training with Mirella Parutto at the Boris Christoff institute in Rome. She took part in the first recording of Emil Tabakov's Requiem, conducted by the composer, and sings on the Naxos disc of Rachmaninov opera excerpts under Nayden Todorov. She has also taught classical singing at the Veselin Stoyanov National School of Arts in Ruse.