Vesselina Kasarova

Artistic Director, mezzosoprano
When she was four, she started playing the piano. She finished the Music School with the main subject “Piano” in her native city of Stara Zagora (1984). She continued her studies by specializing “Opera Singing” tutored by Prof. Resa Koleva at the National Music Academy “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” (1984 – 1989). In 1989, she won the first prize at the International Singing Competition “Neue Stimmen” in Gutersloh.
She debuted at the Sofia Opera and Ballet in the roles of Rosina (“Il barbiere di Siviglia”, Rossini), Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte”, Mozart), Preziosilla (La forza del destino”, Verdi). She realized her first gramophone recording of the opera “Queen of Spades” by Tchaikovsky with Emil Tchakarov.
In 1991, she became a soloist with the Opera in Zurich. In the same year, she made her debut at the Mozart Festival in Salzburg in the role of Annio in “La clemenza di Tito” under the baton of Sir Colin Davis. There followed Tancredi in the eponymous opera by Rossini under the baton of Pinchas Steinberg, Zerlina in “Don Giovanni” by Mozart, director Patrice Chereau, conductor Daniel Barenboim and others.
Meanwhile she received engagements with the Bavarian State Opera, Munich, the Vienna State Opera, La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden, London, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Opera in Amsterdam, Teatro Comunale – Florence, the operas Garnie and Bastille in Paris, the Festivals in Pesaro and the Festival in Bregenz, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Opera in San Francisco and others. In 2019, she debuted in the role of Judith in “A kekszakallu herceg vara” /Wiesbaden, Germany/.
Vesselina Kasarova has registered over 50 CDs, DVDs, many documentary films have been made about her. In 1996, she won a prize for the recording of “Poem of Love and the Sea” by Maurice Ravel. She is a laureate of the prize given by the Foundation “Giovanni Martinelli” to the best song interpreter. She has won high international recognition and many awards, the Echo Music Prize for classical music 2003, the European Award for Culture, Kammersangerin of the Vienna State Opera and of the Bavarian State Opera.
Since 2016 Vesselina Kasarova has been artistic director of the Stara Zagora State Opera.
Opera repertoire:
Angelina (“La Cenerentola”)
Bersi (“Andrea Chenier”)
Annio (“La clemenza di Tito”)
Giovanna Seymour (“Anna Bolena”)
Dorabella (“Cosi fan tutte”)
Helene (“La belle Helene”)
Idamante (“Idomeneo”)
Isabella (“L’Italiana in Algeri”)
Cherubino (“Le nozze di Figaro”)
Meg Page (“Falstaff”)
Polina (“Queen of Spades”)
Pippo (“The Magpie Thief”)
Preziosilla (“La forza del destino”)
Princess de Bouillon (“Adriana Lecouvreur”)
Rosina (“Il barbiere di Siviglia”)
Romeo (“I Capuleti e i Montecchi”)
Ruggiero (“Alcina”)
Sesto (“La clemenza di Tito”)
Tancredi (“Tancredi”)
Farnace (“Mitridate, re di Ponto”)
Zerlina (Don Giovanni”)
Charlotte (“Werther”)
Judith (“A kekszakallu hercegvara”)
Cantata-oratorio repertoire:
Les d’ete (Hector Berlioz)
Requiem (Mozart)
Stabat Mater (Rossini)
Requiem (Verdi)
Symphony No. 3 (Gustav Mahler)
Symphony No. 5 (Gustav Mahler)
Symphonic Poem (Hector Berlioz)
Symphony in E major (Schubert)
Alto Rhapsody for Alt Op. 53 (Brahms)
Caecillienmesse (Haydn)