Stefka Mineva

Mezzosoprano, vocal pedagogue

She was born to a family of musicians – Minyo Minev and soprano Yovka Bunardzhieva-Mineva. She graduated from the State Music Academy “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” – Sofia in the Vocal Faculty, in the class of Prof. Sima Ivanova, and later was tutored by Prof. Iliya Yosifov (1968 – 1972).
She debuted on the Stara Zagora stage in 1972 in the role of Berta in the opera “Il barbiere di Siviglia” by Gioachino Rossini.

In 1974, she specialized at the Opera School of Bolshoi Theater in Moscow tutored by stage director Boris Pokrovsky. The same year, she won the honorary diploma of the International Competition “P. I. Tchaikovsky” in Moscow. In 1976, she was a prizewinner at the Sixth International Competition for Young Opera Singers in Sofia. In 1977, at a competition in Ostend, Belgium, she was awarded the jury prize and the audience prize. She participated in the International Competition in Rio de Janeiro in 1981 and won the first prize.

In 1978, she joined the troupe of the Sofia Opera and Ballet. She has guest-performed at the opera theaters in Paris, the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala in Milan, Rome, Zurich with Renato Bruson, Mara Zampieri, Bonaldo Giaiotti, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Ghena Dimitrova, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Piero Cappuccilli, Ruggero Raimondi, Rosalind Plowright, Yevgeny Nestrenko and others. She has worked with conductors James Conlon, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, James Levine, Mstislav Rostropovich.

In 1993, in Stara Zagora she was awarded the International Prize, bearing the name of Christina Morfova. In 1999, the title “Honorary Citizen” of Stara Zagora was bestowed on her.
During the last few years, Stefka Mineva has conducted an Opera School and is a vocal consultant to artist choir-singers of the Stara Zagora Opera.

Repertoire:
Azucena (“Il trovatore”)
Berta (Il barbiere di Sigviglia”
Countess (“The Queen of Spades”)
Carmen (“Carmen”)
Leonora “La favorite”)
Lyubasha (“The Tsar’s Bride”)
Marina Mniszech (“Boris Godunov”)
Maria (“Ivaylo”)
Marfa (“Khovanshchna”)
Preziosilla (“La forza del destino”)
Princess Eboli (“Don Carlos”)
The Gypsy (“Yana’s Nine Brothers”)
Fenena (“Nabucco”)
Ulrica (“Un mallo in maschera”)