Ivanka Ninova

Since 1989 Ivanka Ninova has been a soloist of the National Opera in Sofia, engaged there after a debut as Eboli in Don Carlo. She came from Vidin by way of the music school in Pleven and the State Academy of Music in Sofia, followed by the Bulgarian Philharmonic Choir, and the repertoire she has carried since is the central mezzo one: Amneris, Azucena, Fenena, Preziosilla, Suzuki, Carmen. Beside the stage roles stands a long concert list — the requiems of Mozart, Verdi and Dvořák, Rossini's Stabat Mater, Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Ninth, and Bulgarian first performances of works by Dvořák and Britten — and tours that have reached from Italy and Ireland to Japan and Korea. She was named a Laureate of Verdi Voices in 1989, and began teaching singing at the Academy in Sofia in 1992. Her recital records include a Verdi programme and a French and Italian one, both with the Plovdiv Philharmonic, made with Nayden Todorov. She studied in Lilia Stefanova's class, and Princess de Bouillon is among her other stage roles. Petya Petrova is one of the singers who have come out of her class at the Academy.