Emil Ivanov

Emil Ivanov is Bulgarian but was born in 1961 in Rome (no idea why). He was a frequent guest at the Vienna Staatsoper during the 1990s, so I heard him regularly; the above recording is quite representative both of his shortcomings and his qualities. Actually, there was one performance in which I've heard him in really excellent form: in Il tabarro not at the Staats- but at the Volksoper. I was attending it in order to hear Wicus Slabbert, I had no idea who the tenor would be, and I rushed in at the last minute, so had no time to check. I was amazed: there was an excellent heroic tenor, clearly reminding me of Mario Del Monaco, but singing in German (at the Volksoper, almost everything was in German then)!! I was even more amazed when I found out, in the intermission, that this tenor was Emil Ivanov. Unfortunately, never before and never after, he sang a performance of faintly similar quality.