Nikolai Zdravkov

Nikolai Zdravkov was born in the Lom region of Bulgaria. Until 1939, he was a factory worker. He began his musical activity in 1948 as a member of the chorus "Kaval" and as a member of an ensemble for folk singing and dancing. During this time, he studied privately with Ilija Josifov. In 1953, he joined the Ruse Opera as a soloist and made his debut on May 2nd of that year as Cavaradossi. In 1955/56, he continued his studies at the Bolshoj Theater in Moscow, at the same time appearing with opera companies throughout the USSR. After 1954, in addition to singing throughout Bulgaria, he appeared as a guest on many European opera stages. He traveled to China on a concert tour in 1959.

Nikolai Zdravkov received many international awards including Bucharest in 1953, Paris in 1954 and Belgium in 1957. Major roles in his career included the Duke in Rigoletto, Alfredo, Nadir, and Pinkerton.

Ruse would always remain his artistic homebase; his sang there until being pensioned off by the management in late 1989; one month later, Zdravkov was dead.

I would like to thank Vladimir Efimenko for the above notes and recordings; source: University of Pittsburgh.

I would like to thank Daniele Godor for the picture and the above recording.