Unica Ghena

Has anyone really forgotten her?

Parsi has an ultra-rare treat for Ghena fans:

Ghena Dimitrova

at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus - Athens, in 1981

singing Abigaille:

"Ben io t'invenni - Anch'io dischiuso - Salgo giá..."

Lassú nel cielo

Now, you tell me... Do you really prefer glossy, thin, glamorous, pretty divas? Or have we just forgotten the beauty of the Voice, bombed as we are, daily, by their publicists and by the media?

Watch this video of Ghena Dimitrova singing Suicidio at the Arena di Verona (1980) and just worship her... I know you will.



The video might be dark and quite hard to watch but who cares?
I would definitely kill to hear live a Suicidio like that ....

ps. As an addendum to this, watch from that very same performance of La Gioconda at the Arena Di Verona, Luciano Pavarotti singing Cielo e Mar and repeating it after the audience's wild reaction.

Ghena IS Turandot

Turandot
G. Puccini
Ghena Dimitrova as Turandot
Nicola Martinucci as Calaf
Cecilia Gasdia as Liu
Roberto Scandiuzzi as Timur

Daniel Oren
A live performance from Genova - 1989

Excellent crystal clear sound!

(No, this is not a personal recording, even though i 'm very proud of the fact that as a kid i saw Ghena singing Turandot at the Arena di Verona back in 1995. Read all about it HERE)
CD1
CD2

Ghena is a stamp!

In my life i ve been lucky enough to have watched live many of my favourite singers. One of those, Ghena Dimitrova, i had the chance to watch on more than one occasions. But there's one night that i ll never forget as long as i live. A night in 1995 when young Parsifal arrived in Verona escorted by his father who, fed up by young Parsifal's insistence, had taken him on a trip to Milan and Verona in order to fulfill his needs (it's widely known that most teenagers at the age of 16 have the need of visiting opera houses all around the globe...). So, there i was, little Parsifalito in front of the Arena with a ticket in my hand that was reading "TURANDOT" and with a big smile on my face. Yes, one ticket only, my father would rather visit the trattorie of Verona than listening to la bulgara.

As you can imagine, little Parsifal spent a night at the stars listening to Ghena's immense voice next to Lando Bartolini's Calaf and Maria Chiara's Liu. As a relic of that night i keep a 30' videotape i shot with my Panasonic handycam in pretty good sound/image! You see, i was born a pirate!

And speaking of Ghena and piracy, what i have for you tonight, on one of my very last posts before leaving Athens for the Greek Air Force, is a very very very rare recording of Ghena singing Leonora and Turandot in Rio de Janeiro in 1978 and 1979.

Il Trovatore
1. Tacea la notte...Di Geloso amor
2. D'amor sull ali rosee...Miserere
3. Mira d acerbe lacrime (Final scene)
With Ruben Dominguez (Manrico)
Bianca Berini (Azuccena)
Benito di Bella (Di Luna)

Turandot
4. In questa reggia.....Straniero ascolta (unknown tenor)

Download HERE

And as always, enjoy!

PS. Great stamp, huh? Maybe i should write a post on stamps with opera stars...