Nadia Tzvetkova in Dinorah's long Shadow Song scene

THE SONGBIRD: Nadia Tzvetkova was born in Bulgaria and began learning music with the violin at the age of six. She graduated from the Bulgarian State Academy of Music with a degree in voice, having studied with soprano Mati Pinkas, and won the Katia Popova prize and the Robert Schumann competition, and was a semifinalist in Vienna's Belvedere competition. Tzvetkova has sung in Austria, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Russia, and Bulgaria with a focus on lyric coloratura operatic and recital appearances in Vienna and Paris.

THE MUSIC: Meyerbeer's 1859 opera-comique "Dinorah," originally titled "Le pardon de Ploërmel," premiered in Paris with Marie Cabel in the title role of a country girl who has already gone mad before the start of the opera! Why? Her bridegroom disappeared following a storm that interrupted their wedding. "Dinorah" was a popular success for 50 years, partly for the quaint music but also out of the novelty of having a live goat and running water on stage. It was kept in the repertory as a favorite showcase role for starry coloratura sopranos including Adelina Patti, Nellie Melba, Caroline Miolan-Carvalho, Marie Van Zandt (the first to sing it at The Met, in 1892), Amelita Galli-Curci, Ilma de Murska, Luisa Tetrazzini, Maria Barrientos, and Lily Pons. Rightly deemed old-fashioned with the rise of verismo, it faded from opera stages and is rarely revived today. However, its most famous aria "Ombre legere" is still a go-to showpiece programmed in recitals and concerts due to its charming tune and coloratura echo effects as Dinorah sings and dances with her shadow.

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