/ world today news/ 60 years without the notable tenor and director Petar Raichev
In 1947, Petar Raichev was among the founders of the Varna Opera,
which opens with Smetana’s opera Bartered Bride, directed by himself.
In one of his crowning roles – Faust from Charles Gounod’s opera in Covent Garden, London
Many people today know that our first singers with a worldwide career and fame were Boris Hristov, Nikolay Gyaurov, Ana Tomova-Sintova, Raina Kabaivanska. They are constantly written and spoken about, but few have heard of Petar Raichev, Ana Todorova, Hristina Morfova, Elisaveta Jovovich, Ilka Popova, Maria Corelli, Mara Koleva, Mariana Radeva, Anton Dyakov, Lyubomir Vishegonov, Nadia Kovacheva, Elena Doskova-Ricardi. … They are the predecessors of the above. Among them is the famous Petar Raichev.
The tenor Petar Raichev (1887-1960) is not only our most famous artist from “The Dawn of the Bulgarian Opera” – the first decades of the 20th century, but also the first Bulgarian to conquer the world opera stages. From 1914 to 1940, the time of his active career as a performer, he was among the world singers. He sang in the most renowned theaters and concert halls on three continents, all of Europe, in Asia and America – from London and Madrid, through Berlin and Moscow to Vladivostok and Tokyo, from Stockholm to La Valletta. It is through his name that the world hears and is convinced that in small and recently liberated Bulgaria extraordinary talents were born and a world-class culture was created. Because the level of his art, according to the critics of the time, was comparable to that of his famous partners – Chaliapin, Totti Dal Monte, Tita Rufo, Carlo Galefi, with whom he sang on the big stages such as the Bolshoi, La La Scala, San Carlo, Grand Opera, Covent Garden, Staatsoper, Vienna… His talent was highly appreciated by great musicians of the era such as Arturo Toscanini, Sergei Prokofiev, Umberto Giordano, Pietro Mascani, Bruno Walter the first tenors in the world – Enrico Caruso, Aureliano Pertile, Tito Skippa, Ferruccio Tagliavini and Beniamino Gili.
Born in our Black Sea capital Varna 128 years ago, he graduated with full honors and a gold medal in just three years from the eight-year course of the Moscow Conservatory, the class of the Italian Madzetti, later he specialized with the famous tenor and pedagogue Fernando De Lucia in Naples, then his fast and brilliant singing career began. From 1914 to 1920, he sang mainly in Russia, as a permanent guest – soloist at all major theaters – from St. Petersburg and Riga to Lviv, Kiev and Odessa. The Russian Opera School and especially the Russian Drama Theater had a strong influence on his formation as a singer and artist. It can be said that his art is a rare and very successful synthesis between the Italian bel canto and the realistic Russian theater of the great director – reformer Konstantin Stanislavsky, his idol. In fact, under Petar Raichev, the artist and the singer merge into an inseparable whole.
“When I was at his show or concert, I always remained submissive and fascinated by the commanding influence of his unsurpassed, rarely emotional playing,” writes the journalist Petko Tikholov in one of his books. Indeed, it was too difficult for his viewers and listeners to single out any of his many roles and they rate her as the best. Because Petar Raichev is equally convincing in both the comic and the lyrical and the dramatic opera. Equally brilliant, convincing, unique as Almamiva, and as Rudolph and Alfred, and as Calaf or Don Jose or Werther. An artist of transformation, a tenor at that, something rare in the genre, he always gets into the skin of his character so that the audience forgets that it is Petar Raichev as Almaviva or Don Jose, but to see before him only Almaviva or Don Jose!
In each of his nearly 80 central roles from the classical Russian, Italian, French and German repertoire, Petar Raichev strives to achieve artistic and technical perfection, to elevate the audience to himself, to show the power of his extraordinary mastery. Because he is among the first masters in our country in this difficult genre, for which in his time we had neither traditions nor great examples. Raichev himself created a tradition, left a mark in Bulgarian opera, which recently celebrated its centenary (while the genre, we know, is more than 400 years old).
His remarkable stage and vocal qualities he unfolded on his native stage in more than 40 roles from the Bulgarian and world repertoire, performed in more than 600 performances. He sings in many languages, but often in Bulgarian as well, performs roles from newly written Bulgarian operas, as well as artistic songs by our authors. Yes, he visits the world a lot, but he never forgets the Sofia Opera, he regularly performs concerts around the country. He feels it his duty to promote this high art to the general public. He likes to quote a thought of his beloved Chekhov: “It is not Gogol who should go down to the people, but the people should rise up to Gogol”. (While in our country now the opposite is happening!).
During his long and fruitful career, Petar Raichev developed the diversity of his exceptional vocal talent to true perfection. As a vocalist, he remains in memories (and fortunately also in his recordings, albeit a little) as an undisputed master of the soft expressive Italian cantilena, coming from a naturally beautiful, bright and warm timbre lyrico-dramatic tenor. As his recordings from the Golden Fund of the BNR can now convince us, his phrasing is extremely temperamental, gradating, with bright, exciting dramatic accents. And his diction is simply magnificent.
He is the first Bulgarian opera artist who sings in many languages / Russian, French, German, Spanish, Italian/ and maintains a huge operatic and song repertoire – a truly large, varied and difficult repertoire. As a singer and teacher, he left behind a school and quite a few gifted followers – also builders of the Bulgarian Opera Theater. After him, the names of a number of world-class Bulgarian tenors shone in the Bulgarian opera from the 1950s – Nikola Nikolov from Sofia, Nikolay Zdravkovi, Todor Bonev from Ruse, Todor Kostov from Varna, also Lubomir Bodurov, Iliya Yosifov, but the People’s Artist Professor Petar Raichev remains the first, the unique, the trailblazer!
And when he finished his singing career, the temperamental and tireless artist became a good director and founded the opera in his hometown. In 1947, he staged the wonderful opera of the Czech classicist Bedrzych Smetana “Broken Bride” (conductor-producer was his son, the then young Ruslan Raichev), he also worked tirelessly to strengthen the state operas of Ruse, Stara Zagora and Plovdiv, newly created after 1944. He directed more than 20 productions, giving away generously, without remainder until his death in August 1960.
His son, Ruslan Raichev (1919-2006), also remained in the history of Bulgarian musical culture as one of the greatest opera and symphony conductors – builders, who, like his father, worked mainly for Bulgaria and for the glorification of Bulgarian musical culture around the world. He worked hard and dedicatedly for almost half a century not only for the Sofia Opera, but also for a number of orchestras and theaters in the country / Plovdiv, Ruse, Varna, Pleven, Burgas, Pernik/, he tirelessly built, conducted opera and symphonic music, and had a large international career, but remained loyal above all to Bulgaria.
Petar Raichev was always elegant and very witty. He was also a gifted cartoonist.
Ruslan Raichev was terribly demanding and persistent in his work, he did not make any compromises, especially with the singers
In 1935, Petar Raichev staged Georges Bizet’s masterpiece – “Carmen” on the Sofia stage on a large scale, with great success as a director. The sets are by the famous scenographer Alexander Milenkov.
And an interesting incident – a memory of him,
shared in an interview for “Zora” magazine.
After a long tour around Europe, returning to Sofia, I was invited by Ministers Mushanov and Bobchev to participate in a charity concert for the Slavic Society.
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I agree, ladies and gentlemen, I answered, but if for each of three numbers you want me to perform, you will have to pay me 10,000 BGN.
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So, maestro Raichev, the concert will be for charity, without a fee, right?
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Precisely because only the government benefits from the Slavic Society. And when I asked for a scholarship to study abroad, I was denied.
Then the ladies and gentlemen, though rather puzzled, agreed. Anyway, I was announced on the poster and the change would be received scandalously. I sang the three opera arias and received the 30,000 BGN I requested. A large amount! When I received them, I immediately returned them and immediately wrote a check requesting that they be deposited immediately into the budget for a charitable purpose, adding:
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And so, ladies and gentlemen, when some merchant, manufacturer and, God forbid, some politician like you, is ashamed to contribute some 200-300 BGN, the whole press explodes and starts praising you, and when the artist Petar Raichev, as often happens to me, sings for free for various causes, not a word! Yes, that’s how it is in our poor Bulgaria!…”
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