Orlin anastassov biography of michael

NAYDEN TODOROV is one of the most talented contemporary Bulgarian musicians, who has achieved prominence with his versatile and vivid interpretations of music in different genres.

Born in 1974 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, he received his first piano lessons at the age of five and at sixteen made his conducting debut. Alexander Vladigerov in Bulgaria and Professor Karl Österreicher in Vienna were great influences on his formation as a conductor. As a student, he won awards from Bulgarian national and international competitions, and in 1990 founded a youth orchestra of his own, with which he performed for more than ten years in Bulgaria, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany, and recorded several compact-discs. At that time, he began to study conducting with Krastyu Marev, the long-time principal conductor of Opera Plovdiv.

In 1993, Nayden Todorov received an invitation from the principal conductor of the Vratsa Philharmonic Orchestra, Vesselin Baytchev to make his professional debut as a conductor. The same year he graduated with distinction from the Dobrin Petkov School of Music in Plovdiv and continued his studies in orchestral conducting with Professor Uroš Lajovic, in choral conducting with Professor Günther Theuring, and opera conducting with Professor Konrad Leitner at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. During his studies, he was a scholar of the Borghese Foundation, the St. St. Cyril and Methodius Foundation, Rotary Club – Vienna, Rotary Club – Jerusalem, Georg Waechter Foundation – Switzerland.

In 1995, he began his first permanent employment as conductor of the Vratsa Philharmonic Orchestra, and several years later was appointed principal conductor of the Vidin Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1996 -1997, Mr. Todorov was invited by the Leonard Bernstein Foundation, Jerusalem, to undergo a course of advanced studies in Israel, where he worked with Mendi Rodan, the principal conductor of the Isra

“Moving, unsettling, gripping – A Verdi of superlatives” (Kurier)

Verdi’s “Messa da Requiem” is in itself a work of superlatives: a towering structure of blazing brass, mighty choral masses and tour-de-force passages for four soloists... a work of deepest and most heartfelt intimacy... a mass for the dead without any mawkish undertones... quite possibly the foremost achievement in 19th-century liturgical music.

Conducting the brilliantly disposed Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Mariss Jansons transforms the Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein into a heavenly anteroom. From the very first, hushed measures, the orchestra “once again impressively demonstrates its leading rank among the German orchestras” (Die Presse). Vienna’s daily “Kurier” rhapsodized: “Whoever was lucky enough to experience this performance live will find it hard to get his feet back on the ground.” And the prestigious Süddeutsche Zeitung exclaimed: “Mariss Jansons delivers a fabulously successful Verdi ‘Requiem’.”

The four outstanding soloists fuse together to project a vast range of emotions, from whispered reverence to emotional upheavals. While Bulgarian soprano Krassimira Stoyanova has been closely associated with the Wiener Staatsoper for several years now, mezzo-soprano Marina Prudenskaya has been steadily building her international career, one major role after another. Albanian-born tenor Saimir Pirgu was chosen by Claudio Abbado at the young age of 22 to sing Ferrando in “Così fan tutte.” Bulgarian bass Orlin Anastassov, meanwhile, has established himself as a superb Verdi singer.

I wrote the following review last month but unfortunately my good friends at Opera Britannia were not able to publish it. Though it is a bit late I thought I would post it anyway for anyone who cared to give it a read.

The 2010 season at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma got off to a dull start in January with a Falstaff under Asher Fisch that was musically lacklustre and theatrically dated. We had been promised a “new” production and what we got was an “old” retread of the same ideas Franco Zeffirelli had back in 1964 when he staged the Verdi-Arrigo Boito masterpiece at the Old Met. For Boito’s Mefistofele, the second of the season’s offerings, we were promised a new “old” production. “Old” in that the designs were inspired by sets created in the 1930s by Camillo Parravicini, a principal designer in Italy and more specifically Rome in the mid-20th century. The “new” was director Filippo Crivelli and scenographer Andrea Migilio’s concept that used computer technology and video projections of the Parravicini’s water colours in an effort to bring pictorial life to Boito’s words and music.

Unfortunately too often the gap between concept and realization is a wide one. Though Miglio and video designer Michele della Cioppa gave us more than a few remarkable stage pictures the fixed set of risers – like an Industrial age Odeon – did not allow for much more than background effects. Some of those effects were stunning but there is only so much that can be done with projections when dealing with a stage full of singers, chorus and dancers. At certain points the production team seemed to have run out of ideas and resorted to old fashioned follow sports and set pieces.

The curtain rose in total silence on a loan figure in 19th century costume, reclining in the centre of the risers he was regarding a musical score. As much had been made in the programme notes of the failure of Mefistofele at its first performance at La Scala in 1868 (what