Readers are most likely to have come across this Bulgarian soprano before in A Life for the Tsar under Tchakarov (Sony Classical, 9/91), where she sang Antonida. Her voice was noted as fresh and clear but somewhat tremulous and edgy on high. The high notes were certainly all present and available without strain, and the technique was well-schooled; she also sang the lovely Third Act aria (''I am not grieving'') with heartfelt expression, leaving one with the sense that here was a singer with a future as long as she did not too seriously overwork the already hardened upper register.
Her first recital on record confirms all this: the talent and the training are fine, imagination and musical intelligence are clearly at work, and the notes in alt are all ready and waiting at the leap of an octave – but one does not greatly yearn to hear them. From the start of her programme, with Juliette's trill and flourish leading into the waltz-song, we hear a tone which displays its least attractive qualities in notes above the stave (say, above the high A natural) though there is a great deal to like and admire elsewhere.
She has enjoyed some of her most notable international successes in French opera, and it is in that area of the repertoire that she opens, yet it was at a later stage that I began to feel what was really special. One sits up at the beginning of ''Bel raggio'', an unexpected queenly command in the utterance. The reading of Germont's letter in La traviata also has something personal about it (sad acceptance of the news that Alfredo is still abroad, a genuine taking to heart of the ''Curatevi''). The aria (both verses) is sung with a good deal of imaginative resource, as indeed is the great solo from Act 1. Tatiana's Letter scene is probably the best and strengthens the feeling that here is a lyric soprano with warm feeling and a clean style, good low notes too, and one whose upper register has probably been over-exploited. The recording and orchestral playing are satisfactory but information about the music is confined to the jewel-case and limited to the scarcely reducible minimum.
'