Stefka Evstatieva Kovacheva

(1949 - 2025)

Stefka Evstatieva was a name inscribed in the history of world opera theater with her brilliant artistic performances for more than 15 years on the world’s largest opera stages - Paris, Milan, London, New York, Vienna, Arena di Verona... Her brilliant career began in the late 1970s. In fact, by then she had already proven herself as a vivid talent, a soprano with a magnificent, large-scale, expressive voice sounding beautiful and resonant throughout its entire range.

The great Bulgarian opera singer Stefka Evstatieva was born on May 7, 1947, in Ruse. As a child, she played the violin and then the double bass. Her singing studies began in the “Sedyanka” amateur choir in Silistra, where she also received her first singing lessons. After high school came the Music Academy in Sofia, where she was accepted into the class of Prof. Elena Kiselova. She completed her education and, after successfully passing a competition, was accepted into the Ruse Opera. During eight seasons in the famous troupe, she prepared and repeatedly performed 13 roles, including some of the staples of her repertoire: Maria-Amelia from Simon Boccanegra, Leonora from Il trovatore, Elizabeth from Don Carlos (in Bulgarian), Mimi from La bohème, Maddalena from Andrea Chénier, and Lisa from The Queen of Spades.

In the spring of 1979, she was personally invited to be a soloist for the National Opera and Ballet-Sofia. This was an honor bestowed upon few. However, Stefka Evstatieva was already a name in Bulgarian musical life, a laureate of the extremely difficult 5th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. She was awarded second prize, with no first prize being given, and received a special award for the performance of a Russian work. Incidentally, she is the first Bulgarian singer to reach a final and become a laureate. This defined the subsequent interest in the singer who undoubtedly has not only great talent, but also a great future in the art of opera. Because many, many young people become singers, but only a few succeed in climbing and conquering heights that write them forever into world cultural history.

With the role of Maddalena de Coigny from “Andrea Chénier,” she won the Grand Prize and the Golden Ring at the VI International Competition for Young Opera Singers in Sofia. This was followed by the Grand Prize and the special prize of the jury (for a duet performance) at the International Competition of Belgian Radio and Television in Ostend, Netherlands (1978). In 1982, she received the “Giovanni Zenatello” statuette at the Arena di Verona, awarded to the brightest talents and an indisputable sign of great recognition in Italy. She has been honored with high state titles such as “Honored Artist,” and other distinctions like the “Golden Lyre” of the Union of Musicians in Bulgaria.

She has sung the most famous and attractive roles for every soprano from the classical repertoire. At the Sofia Opera, she had enormous success as Maddalena de Coigny, Marguerite from Boito’s “Mefistofele,” Aida, Leonora from “Il Trovatore,” Elisabeth from “Don Carlos,” Lisa from “The Queen of Spades,” Amelia from “A Masked Ball,” Tosca, Mimi from Puccini’s “La Bohème,” Leonora from “The Force of Destiny,” Yaroslavna from “Prince Igor,” etc. Her appearances on the concert stage are also numerous—unforgettable was her performance of Verdi’s Requiem!

After her success in London as Desdemona from “Otello,” the singer interested the Metropolitan Opera in New York. For seasons, she was preferred and invited for soprano roles in the operas ‘Don Carlos,’ ‘Andrea Chénier,’ ‘Un ballo in maschera,’ and ‘Cavalleria rusticana’. This is how her popularity in America began. Meanwhile, she was also noticed and appreciated by La Scala in Milan, where she sang Maddalena di Coigny from ‘Andrea Chénier’ for two seasons; the Paris National Opera sought her for Desdemona, and the Vienna State Opera for Leonora from ‘Il trovatore,’ as well as for major Russian and Italian operas, including at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. At the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), at her request, they staged ‘Adriana Lecouvreur,’ in which Stefka Evstatieva shone as both a singer and an actress. In fact, she enjoyed exceptional attention in this theater. She has also performed at the Arena di Verona, Parma, Turin, Rome, Trieste, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Washington, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans, Miami, Montreal, Toronto, Cuba, Chile, Pretoria (South Africa), Cairo, and others.

From the beginning of the 1980s, her brilliant path across the stages of Europe and America was already underway; she became a name on the posters of the oldest and most iconic opera houses. A name written alongside conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Nello Santi, Semyon Bychkov, Fabio Luisi, and singers of the rank of José Carreras, Sherrill Milnes, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Piero Cappuccilli, Vladimir Atlantov, Carlo Bergonzi, Ferruccio Furlanetto, etc. She has sung in the largest opera houses in the world—repeatedly!—and is recognized as one of the most impressive performers of the Verdi and Verismo repertoire.”

It has happened in a single season for her to sing at La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden in London, and the Grand Opera in Paris. This signifies demand from impresarios, and respectively, the management and the audience. The result: recognition, renown, and fame. Her life flows in tempo presto - a continuous series of travels, takeoffs and landings, rehearsals and performances, and encounters with the audience.

Throughout this decade, Stefka Evstatieva remained connected and deeply committed to the Sofia Opera. Every season, she had regular appearances on its stage. During the 1881–82 season, she rehearsed, performed, and recorded for “Balkanton” the opera Khan Asparukh by Alexander Raichev, in which the composer created the role of Ahinora specifically for her. Later came Tosca, Aida, Margherita from Boito’s Mefistofele, Yaroslavna from Prince Igor, and many other roles. These included both new and previously performed roles, with which she actively participated in both the regular repertoire and the Opera’s tours.

After 1989, she moved with her family to the USA and settled in New York. For more than two decades, Stefka Evstatieva taught there and took an active role in the New York Bulgarian community’s cultural life; she performed in concerts together with the pianist Pavlina Dokovska. Evstatieva was one of the founders of the Bulgarian children’s choir and the “Gergana” school in New York and was on the Advisory Board of Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York since its inception. She hosted masterclasses during each of her visits in Bulgaria: in Sofia and in Russe, at “Apolonia”.

Here are some reviews from the press:

“With her large and beautiful voice, Stefka Evstatieva gave a different color to Elisabeth in the fourth act of Don Carlos. She sang movingly and with fervent commitment” (The Times).

“In Evstatieva’s performance, there is beauty, dignity, and dramatic power” (Financial Times).

“She possesses the power and artistic instinct to make the best use of her magnificent soprano, which is even from top to bottom. In her singing...”

“...there was drama, along with a successful and unlimited understanding of Verdi’s unique requirements for sopranos.” (Detroit Free Press, “Requiem - Verdi”, 1984)

“Evstatieva excels in ‘Un ballo in maschera’,” the title of a review by Stefan Wigler, who shares: “Stefka Evstatieva, as Amelia, showed that she is a true Verdian soprano. In a time when there are not many such, she demonstrated true mastery. She is rhythmically accurate, possesses beauty of tone and strength in all three of her registers, can sculpt a beautiful line in legato, and attack suddenly, creeping in with the grace of a cat. She also possesses the vocal gift of a true dramatic soprano—soaring, when necessary, over the orchestra and large ensembles.” (The Sun, March 11, 1991).

“The revelation of the evening has a name and it is: Stefka Evstatieva as Santuzza, thrilling and rich in vocal modulations. In the ambiguous texture of the role, the singer achieved a combination of elegance with the requirements of verismo singing.” (Il Messaggero domenica, 4 luglio, 1993, Caracalla).

“An excellent Desdemona” (Arena di Verona, Corriere Della Sera, 1982, 10 luglio): “Desdemona—the Bulgarian soprano Stefka Evstatieva—was the most applauded and loved. Her solid and well-placed voice sounded pure and sang with ease. After the ‘Willow Song,’ the soprano received well-deserved ovations.”

“Evstatieva possesses a rich, sweet, rather dark tone and a smooth vocal line, suitable for the broad lyrical melodies of familiar arias by Verdi and Puccini...” (Karl Cunningham, “Houston Post”, Sept. 1991)

“Stefka Evstatieva - Leonora, was attractive physically and vocally, more and more delightful. In the beginning, the big voice was a little darker, but very quickly acquired center and brilliance. Her acting, although it was not as graceful as her musical flair, was accompanied by Verdian flexibility in singing. The soprano showed strong sensitivity, the kind that was associated with Bulgarian singers some time ago...” (New Orleans, 1986, by Frank Gagnard).

The singer has a number of recordings released on both records and CDs by companies such as “Sony” (“Prince Igor” and “The Queen of Spades”), Fidelio (“Vera Sheloga” by R. Korsakov), Capriccio (“The Snow Maiden” by R. Korsakov), Naxos (“Cavalleria rusticana”), LaserLight Classics “Mefistofele” by Boito, Balkanton - three recitals with opera arias, as well as the documentary film “Making Opera,” which received a special award, a DVD recording tracing the preparation of an opera production from the first rehearsals to the premiere of “The Power of Fate” (St. Evstatieva-Leonora) in Toronto, Canada.

Her public activity includes: participation in juries of international vocal competitions in the USA - the First and Second International Vocal Competition “Marian Anderson” in Maryland (1991 and 1995), and in the XIII and IV International Competition “Boris Christoff” (Sofia, 2009 and 2014); she was the chair of the jury of the International Competition for Opera Artists “Plovdiv 2002” in Plovdiv, etc. She is the Musical Director of the IAMF (International Atlantic Music Foundation), a member of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing), of the NOA (National Opera Association), and a member of the Board of BCENY (Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York), USA.

Starting from the end of the 1990s, she began her pedagogical activity. For three years, she was a vocal pedagogue at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida. She has conducted a series of very successful masterclasses at the Mannes School of Music in New York, in Colima, Mexico (three masterclasses), and in Toronto, Canada. Her masterclasses in Sofia at the NMA “P. Vladigerov” and twice at the NMU “L. Pipkov” (organized with the assistance of the “Cyril and Methodius” Foundation) were met with great interest, as were those held very successfully over two consecutive seasons at the Summer Academy of Arts in Sozopol, among others. She also established her own Vocal Studio in New Rochelle, where she continues to train young singers to this day.

Stefka Evstatieva is one of the founders of the “Gergana” Bulgarian Children’s Choir and School in New York, as well as its vocal pedagogue. She is also the vocal pedagogue for the Bulgarian Mixed Choir in New York. She has dedicated many years to them, working with love and devotion to this day, with the awareness of doing a useful and patriotic deed. Therefore, the honors awarded to the Choir and School are also honors for her many years of persistent work. “Gergana” is a recipient of honorary awards from the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria and the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad.

Stefka Evstatieva’s art is born from inspiration and emotion; it has always moved, shaken, and left unforgettable memories in the souls of her audience. This is because it radiates the unique taste of spiritual delight, colored by the special vibrations of her voice and the directness in the portrayal of her heroines. On stage, St. Evstatieva is a musician and professional who makes an impact with her detailed and deep insight into the essence of the characters through nuances, accents, and dynamics, as well as an artist capable of breathing life into them and saturating them with drama. And something very significant—the singer has never relied solely on her exceptional natural gifts. Constantly and ambitiously, for decades, she has been developing her talent. Because her goal is not just to perform, but to give soul to the music.

Stefka Evstatieva is a personality with her own contribution to the history of Bulgarian opera art. Not only with her performances on our stage. Through her participation in tours of the National Opera on many European musical stages, she contributed to the success and recognition of the ensemble during the 80s of the last century. And without a doubt, even at that time, she was inscribed among the elite group of famous opera singers from the end of the 20th century. Alongside names such as Nicolai Ghiaurov, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Raina Kabaivanska, Ghena Dimitrova, and Alexandrina Milcheva, she is an artist-ambassador for her homeland; she is among the individuals who have shaped the image of Bulgaria far beyond its borders, not only as a homeland of talent but as a place where they are comprehensively developed, nurtured by talented and capable Bulgarian teachers, conductors, and directors. Stefka Evstatieva is among those marked by fate as carriers of spiritual joy, beauty, and givers of intangible values.

The singer’s contribution to the creation of the Bulgarian children’s Choir and school “Gergana” should be especially emphasized, where she has been a vocal pedagogue for 13 years and continuously, with enthusiasm, prepares children, teaching them to sing correctly, instills in them love and respect not only for the song, but also for Bulgarian music. Because she remains Bulgarian, deeply and inextricably linked with her homeland.

Consequently to everything stated so far and in connection with her 70th anniversary jubilee, I propose with unwavering conviction that Stefka Evstatieva Kovacheva be honored with the highest state award.

Sofia, March 24, 2017.

Prof. Boyanka Arnaudova - musicologist, music critic and publicist, educator, recipient of the Order of “Saints Cyril and Methodius” - 1st degree, the “Crystal Lyre,” the “Golden Pen,” and other national awards.