Evstatieva, Stefka
Evstatieva, Stefka
Evstatieva, Stefka, Bulgarian soprano; b. Rousse, May 7, 1947. She was a pupil of Elena Kiselova at the Bulgarian State Cons, in Sofia. In 1971 she made her operatic debut as Amelia at the Rousse Opera, where she was a member until 1979. She was also a member of the Bulgarian State Opera in Sofia from 1978. In 1980 she made her first appearance with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London as Desdemona during its visit to Manchester; in 1981 she sang with the company in London as Donna Elvira. After engagements in Berlin and Vienna in 1982, and in Milan and Paris in 1983, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Elisabeth in Don Carlos on April 9, 1984. In 1984 she appeared with the San Francisco Opera as Aida, which role she portrayed at the Savonlinna Festival in 1990. In 1992 she sang Tosca at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, returning there as Maddalena in 1996. She was engaged as Elisabeth in Don Carlos in Montreal in 1998. She also toured as a concert artist. Among her other roles were Donna Elvira, Leonora, Mimi, Suor Angelica, Madeleine de Coigny, and Lisa in The Queen of Spades.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire