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“I am happy to have been able to meet interesting people on my way,” says Mariana Zvetkova. “I remember my first kindergarten teacher with her enormous accordion and Snezhina Yakimova – my first singing teacher at the music school. They were both dedicated to their work and did a lot to encourage and support me. Later, at the Music Academy I was in Iliya Yossifov’s class and he taught me a great deal. My meeting with Boris Christoff has marked my entire career. My time at Indiana University with my exceptional teacher, mentor and great friend Martina Arroyo… It has so often happened that my professional contacts on the stage have developed into different joint projects. One of them took me to South Korea where I have been teaching at the Catholic University for the past five years. I was invited by a colleague we sang together with in USA. I met the brilliant Bulgarian basso Boris Christoff in 1990 when he tutored me and we worked together intensively for 8-9 months. I saw him last on September 4, 1991. But he is part of my life to this day. I feel a bond with him and not just because I have learnt so much from him professionally, but because he “infected” me with a fighting spirit that has so often turned against me. To my mind the biggest punishment there can be is when a person or a whole nation accepts injustice. I know for a fact he was very honest and outspoken in his relations with his colleagues. To me he is a role model and an inspiration.”

“Four of us left for the Academy in Rome – Ventsislav Dinev, Petyo Konovski, Plamen Beykov and myself,” Mariana Zvetkova goes on to say. “By the time we graduated there were two of us. Boris Christoff did not teach vocalization – I think he insisted on Bulgarian singers studying at his academy so as to show them how to work with the lyrics, how to give their performance a personal touch, he taught them interpretation. I remember the famous aria of Lisa from Tchaikovsky’s opera

Mariana Tsvetkova and Plamen Beykov

In 2014, we mark Boris Christoff’s centennial birth anniversary. To mark the centennial anniversary of their mentor, Mariana Tvetkova and Plamen Beykov gave several concerts; one of them was included in the March Music Days in Rousse.

The audio features the following works:

-  Eliza’s aria from Wagner’s Tannhäuser;

-  Lisa’s aria from Tchaikovski’s the Queen of Spades;

-  Amelia’s aria from Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera.

English version: Milena Daynova