Raina Kabaivanska (born December 15, 1934) is a Bulgarian opera singer, one of the most renowned sopranos in the second half of the 20th century. Born in Burgas under the name Raina Yakimova, she graduated Opera Singing and Piano from the Bulgarian State Academy of Music. Kabaivanska made her debut at the Bulgarian National Opera in Sofia as Tatjana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in 1957. Two years later she made a breaktrhough in Italy as Nedda in Leoncavallo’s Bajazzo although it was not until 1961 when Kabaivanska staged her first performance at Milan’s La Scala, that international renown came. Between the 1960s and the 1980s Kabaivanska toured most major opera theatres in the world, including La Scala, Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall in New York, Covent Garden in London, Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.
Her repertory has included works by Verdi (Don Carlo, Otello, Falstaff, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, La Forza del Destino, I Vespri Siciliani, Ernani, Requiem), Puccini (as Madame Butterfly, Tosca, Manon Lescaut), Wagner (Rienzi), Cilea (Adriana Lecouvreur), Donizetti (Roberto Devereux), Leoncavallo (Pagliacci), Gounod (Faustus), Massenet (Manon), Catallani (La Wally), Tchaikovsky (Queen of Spades, Eugene Onegin), Strauss (Capriccio), Zandonai (Francesca de Rimini), Spontini (La Vestalle), Gluck (Armide), Leoš Janáček (The Macropolus Case), Lehar (La Vedova Allegra).
Kabaivanska has received the following international opera awards: Bellini (1965), Viotti d'Oro (1970), Puccini (1978), Illica (1979), Monteverdi (1980), the Award of Academia 'Medicci' - Lorenzo di Magnifico, Florence (1990), the Grand Prix 'A Life, Dedicated to the Music', Venice (2000).
At present, Kabaivanska is a professor at the 'Chigiana' Academy of Music, Italy. She has a Master Class for performers of Puccini's works, as well as master classes in Spain, Italy and France. She is also a jury member for many prestigious competitions all over the world.
