Oh Alex, sei adorabile con questo! Don't care for crazy comments. A concert is a concert and not looking on the pictures there is still perfect musical style, tecnique and expression. You make the most difficult things live! Remember SEMIRAMIDE.
First of all, Dimitrova was not her teacher. Her teacher was her own mother Valerie Popova. And I don't agree about her being uncharismatic. Maybe in this performance she is a bit stiff, but in others she shows her complete artistry with goes beyond vocal expression.
Well,if. Cecilia. Bartolli said she is a mezzo!! This great bulgarian soprano,can say she is a mezzo too. With better musicianship and more temperament!!plenty of real tempetament. Most lyrics mezzos today sounds like her,but with less power in their low register. She is a serious artist and a great bulgarian soprano!!!
I listened her as Aspasia in Turin, in 1995 and I was not fond of her performance, but I don't remember she had so annoying a vibrato. Maybe, seven years later, she got worse.
The voice is amazing yes...but her stage presence and lack of charisma make me yawn after the first couple of high cs...Just like Dimitrova (her teacher) she's a sound making machine, but dead in regards to eloquent singing. Her face is the same throughout. There's no emotion on the face, no gestures, no artistry besides technique. I prefer to see Tiziana Fabricinni with all her vocal flaws for 2 hours than this girl for a couple of arias. Opera IS theater SUNG. Y
It's not about making faces and jumping around (although one can make faces that are more appropriate than other faces, certainly, ditto for movements). A singer's expressivity should be able to be judged without referring to the visuals at all. Granted, Dimitrova wasn't that much of a thespian, but the voice was totally imbued with feeling.
I think you described both ladies perfectly (that is, Alex and Ghena)! I, too, think both are sound-making machines. There is very little subtlety in their singing. They are good for open-air concert not so much for recordings.
