/ world today news/ 90 years since the birth of Asen Selimski
A strong, gifted generation of opera artists worked in the Sofia Opera from the 1960s to the 1990s. Julia Viner, Nikola Nikolov, Lyubomir Bodurov, Nadia Afeyan, Reni Penkova, Nedelcho Pavlov, Liliana Bareva, Blagovesta Karnobatlova, Rumen Doikov, Stoyan Popov, Nikola Vasilev, Pavel Gerdzhikov and a number of others who dedicated their talents and lives to our first musical scene. And although they were singers of European or world class, despite the opportunities to work for higher pay and also appreciation abroad, unlike a number of the young people who are now fleeing abroad, they remained loyal to Bulgaria. They decided that it was their duty to work for the country in which they were born and educated. That is why our opera has established itself as a first-class ensemble theater, with a constellation of bright talents.
Among this “golden generation”, one of the first places undoubtedly belongs to the baritone Asen Selimski. This year he turns 90, and this is a good occasion to briefly recall his brilliant career.
He was born on August 10, 1930, under the sun sign of Leo, in Pleven, the capital of Mysia, which gave birth to many valuable Bulgarian opera voices /Mikhail Popov, Hristo Brambarov, Katya Popova, Gena Dimitrova/. She has been singing since she was a child. He listens to his father’s gramophone and dreams of becoming a singer like the famous tenor Asparukh Leshnikov in the past. He finished high school and went to Sofia to study singing at the Conservatory, encouraged by his father’s cousin, our famous singer and teacher Hristo Brambarov. Prof. Brambarov’s school is solid, Italian and gives young Selimski an excellent foundation. After completing his studies, he made his successful debut by throwing himself into the deepest waters possible – the role of Rigoletto, which in 1955 he staged in the Vračan Municipal Opera / unfortunately, today there is no such! / the capital’s director Iliya Ivanov. Success is really encouraging. At the inspection of the opera houses, the young and brave artist was noticed by the directorate of the Ruse Opera / then leading in the province / and appointed as a regular artist. At that time, the leading baritone in Ruse’s lineup was the brilliant vocalist Kiril Krastev, who carried almost the entire repertoire. But the young Selimski quickly managed to win his place in the strong line-up and establish himself as a valued and beloved performer by the audience. After Rigoletto, appeared in Germont in the memorable production of Verdi’s “La Traviata”, the work of Prof. Dragan Kurdzhiev and Konstantin Iliev, followed by Count di Luna from “The Troubadour”, Belcore from “Love Elixir” by Donizetti, Lescaut in “Manon” by Massenet / a magnificent production by Ruslan Raichev and Stefan Trifonov, 1958 /, Jack Rance in Puccini’s “The Girl from the West” / also an exceptional production by Evgeni Nemirov and Boris Hinchev/. At the end of 1959, he appeared in one of the most problematic baritone roles – Figaro from “The Barber of Seville”. The director of the Sofia Opera, Dimitar Petkov, heard him at a performance in Ruse. Invite him on tours in the capital. After several performances, he was appointed an artist and initially took over this opera after the retirement of the long-time and irreplaceable “Sofia barber” Mihail Lyutskanov. The excellent school of maestro Brambarov, the grateful stage appearance /Selimski was a real handsome man on stage!/, his undoubted acting talent helped him to take the central roles of the baritone repertoire in a short time: Marquis Posa from “Don Carlos”, Count di Luna, Renato from “Ball with masks”, Eletski from “Lady of Spades”, Prince Igor.
In 1961, cultural Bulgaria enjoyed a number of important events, among which, without a doubt, was the first edition of the International Competition for Young Opera Singers in Sofia. It features more than 70 young performers from around the world. The third round is with participation with a major role in an entire performance, and this is what distinguishes it from other similar competitions in the world and makes it unique. In a tough competition, Asen Selimski reaches the final and performs his crowning role – Figaro. Together with another, also very gifted young baritone, Peter Glossop from London, who also performed brilliantly as Count Di Luna, the two shared the first prize. The jury includes one of the great singers of the 20th century, Totti Da Monte, who declares that during her long career, in which she sang many times in the “Barber of Seville” around the world, she has not seen or heard a better and more charming Figaro than ours Selimsky. After this event, the road to the big world stages is ahead of him, but he prefers to stay in his homeland and be completely loyal to the Sofia Opera. In fact, he worked for her for over twenty-five years from the sixties to the late eighties, after which he devoted himself to teaching. After Figaro, many more new and interesting roles by classical and contemporary authors were added: Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, Leoncavallo, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev… The role of Onegin from “Eugene Onegin” of Tchaikovsky. Along with Figaro, Renato and Marquis Posa, she is among his star roles. With it, he marks the peak of his career. This takes place at the famous opera festival in Gliddenbourne, England. There, under the direction of the famous John Pritchard Selimsky, he participated in a series of performances with huge success and extremely high ratings from the critics. You could say that he was born for this role – everything about his figure, bearing, gait, soulful face and of course, voice is just perfect for it. Onegin is a complex, multi-layered character that is difficult to portray, especially on stage. Selimsky managed to build and saturate it in a remarkable, impressive way, and it can be said that his Onegin is the best so far on our stage. It is no coincidence that with this party he also triumphed on a number of foreign stages.
He was an artist without a specific role. He could convincingly, masterfully transform himself into dramatic, lyrical, comic and even sharply characteristic roles of different style and character – from Rigoletto and Marquis Poza to Guglielmo from Mozart’s “This is what everyone does” and Taddeo from Rossini’s “The Italian in Algiers”. At the same time, always with the necessary measure and an impeccable sense of style, without exaggeration and sarcasm.
Bulgarian roles are an important moment in the artist’s rich biography. In the first place, Nyagul from “Albena” by Parashkev Hadzhiev. Asen Selimski was born for this image. He participated with success in other operas of our greatest opera author, who valued him highly. Personally, I was happy to hear and see him also as the Music Teacher at the premiere of the opera “Star without a name” by Hadjiev, for which I wrote the libretto in 1985.
At the end of this short portrait, I would like to highlight a rare quality of Asen Selimski. His attitude to the word, to the sung word on stage. Many opera singers, because of the quality of the vocals, of the sung tone, simply ignore diction and pronunciation. Selimski, in addition to singing very correctly and beautifully, pronounced each syllable and phrase distinctly, extremely clearly. The text, which is often lost in the opera, is accessible and understandable in it, as in the dramatic theater. And this is not only a rare gift, but also an attitude, respect for the viewer and the listener.
Prof. Brambarov, who died in 1975, insisted that his famous student take a lesson from his singing class – male voices. Selimski gradually became a very good and sought-after teacher. After some time, he became a professor at the Academy of Music and NBU. Among his best and most famous students are: tenors Emil Ivanov and Ivan Momerov, basses Svetlozar Rangelov and Julian Konstantinov. And his daughter, Iliana Selimska, possesses a rare beautiful, perfectly trained coloratura soprano, and one can only regret that she appears too rarely on stage lately.
The place of People’s Artist Asen Selimski is still unoccupied today. There simply has not been born such an incomparable, charming Figaro as him.
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