Stefka Mineva

Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Stara Zagora, 1972: Stefka Mineva's first role was sung at twenty-three on a stage two of its founding singers, her parents, had helped to build. Born in 1949, she studied with Sima Ivanova and Ilia Yosifov at the State Music Academy in Sofia between 1968 and 1972, and stayed six seasons in Stara Zagora before the National Opera in Sofia took her into its company in 1978 as a principal mezzo. The competitions came in a rush: an honorary diploma at the Tchaikovsky in Moscow in 1974, a prize at the international competition for young opera singers in Sofia in 1976, third prize and the audience award at Ostend in 1977, first prize at Rio de Janeiro in 1981. In 1974 she worked at the Bolshoi's opera studio with the director Boris Pokrovsky. Azucena, Amneris and Carmen were the pillars of a repertoire that eventually ran past a hundred and twenty roles, and they were heard in Paris, Milan, Rome, Zurich and at the Metropolitan Opera. She was still on the Sofia stage in the early 2000s, singing in the company's Faust across the winter of 2002 and the spring of 2003. Stara Zagora made her an honorary citizen in 1999, and she has returned to the opera there as a vocal consultant and to teach in its studio.