Mariana Zvetkova

Roles by Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, Dvořák and Richard Strauss have carried Mariana Zvetkova through opera houses and concert halls in Bulgaria and abroad, Turandot and Tosca among her roles. Her concert work has run from Verdi programmes to the soprano solo in Mahler's Fourth Symphony. The collaboration with the conductor Nayden Todorov has extended across many seasons, in opera and in symphonic programmes alike. The Queen Elisabeth Competition lists her birth year as 1965, while a biographical account by Boris Kontohow gives 1969. She trained at the academy in Sofia and went on to Boris Christoff in Rome and Martina Arroyo at Indiana University, taking fourth prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1996 and the Grand Prix in Toulouse in 1998. La Scala, the Munich state opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin are among the houses that have engaged her, and her recordings include Dvořák's Stabat Mater under Giuseppe Sinopoli and Rachmaninoff opera excerpts with Nayden Todorov.