Opera star Nicolai Ghiaurov dies at 74

MODENA, Italy (Classic music news website) - World-famous Bulgarian basso Nikolai Ghiaurov died Wednesday after a 50-year splendid career on the world's most prestigious stages, the Sofia Opera said. He was 74.
Ghiaurov died of pneumonia at a private clinic near his home in Modena, Italy, the announcement said.

Born on Sept 13, 1929 in the small mountainous Velingrad in southern Bulgaria, Ghiaurov studied opera singing in the class of Prof. Hristo Brambarov in the Sofia Musical Academy. He continued his studies in Moscow and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).
He made his debut in the Sofia National Opera in the part Don Basilio of Gioacchino Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" in 1955 shortly after winning top prizes at opera singing festivals in Warsaw and Paris.

The same year he was appointed a soloist of the Sofia Opera, but his very first performance abroad had already paved the way for his glorious international career.
It began in Bologna, Italy in 1957 and with his rendition of Varlaam in the opera "Boris Godunov" by Modeste Moussorgski at Milan's La Scala in 1960.

Ghiaurov performed at Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre, Vienna's Stadtsoper, Paris Grand Opera, La Scala, London's Covent Garden, New York's Metropolitan Opera and many other world stages. "Perfection is the utmost goal of my life," he used to say.

In January, he was still singing, performing the role of Don Basilio in Rossini's "Barber of Seville" at the Malebran theater in Venice, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
His masterpieces included the parts of Mephistopheles in Charles Gounod's Faust, Philip II in Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlos, Don Juan in the eponymous opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Boris Godounov of the eponymous piece by Modeste Moussorgski.
He was considered one of the world's best performers of Italian and Russian opera.

Ghiaurov is survived by his wife, famous Italian soprano Mirella Freni and son Vladimir. He will be buried in Modena, where he lived with Freni.