Ivanka Ninova

Ivanka Ninova is a Bulgarian mezzo-soprano opera singer born in Vidin. She began her musical education at a music school and later at the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music in Sofia. Since 1989 she has been a soloist at the Sofia National Opera.

Her roles include Princess Eboli in Don Carlo, Preziosilla in La Forza del Destino, Amneris in Aida, Azucena in Il Trovatore, Fenena in Nabucco, Suzuki in Madame Butterfly, and Carmen. Ninova has given many concert hall performances, including roles in the requiems of Mozart, Verdi, and Dvorak, in Rossini's Stabat Mater, Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's 9th Symphony and many others. More recently she has been a lecturer at the Pancho Vladigerov Music Academy. Though she has performed abroad and throughout Europe, her career has been largely limited to Bulgaria.

Ninova has a high-lying voice for a mezzo-soprano and therefore excels in the dramatic aspects of the roles she performs in. She produces commanding high notes and possesses enormous vocal power. Were she to perform outside her native country, she would certainly stand in the front row of mezzos who perform today. Her recordings are few and provincial in both production and distribution. She did record an exceptionally beautiful version of Brahm's Alto Rhapsody, however.