Nicola Ghiuselev Interview with Bruce Duffie . . . . . . . . .

Bass Nicola Ghiuselev

A Conversation with Bruce Duffie

Nicola Ghiuselev (August 17 1936 in Pavlikeni, Bulgaria - May 16, 2014 in Sofia, Bulgaria). He studied painting at the Academy of Arts in Sofia, and later voice at the school of the National Opera of Sofia, with Christo Brambarov. He made his stage debut with that company, as Timur in Turandot, in 1960. In 1965, with the Sofia Opera, he toured Germany, the Netherlands and France, and made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera of New York, as Ramfis in Aïda, quickly followed by King Philip II in Don Carlo, and the title role in Boris Godunov. In two seasons with the Met, he also sang Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, and Colline in La bohème.

Important debuts followed at the Berlin State Opera, La Scala in Milan, the Vienna State Opera, the Monte Carlo Opera, the Palais Garnier in Paris, the Liceo in Barcelona, the San Carlo in Naples, the Royal Opera House in London, the Verona Arena, the Salzburg Festival, and the Holland Festival. He also appeared in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, Marseille, Toulouse, Chicago, and Houston, among others.

Other notable roles include; Narbal in Les Troyens, Méphistophélès in Faust, Creonte in Medea, Padre Guardiano in La forza del destino, Banquo in Macbeth, Zaccaria in Nabucco, Silva in Ernani, Enrico in Anna Bolena, Galitzky in Prince Igor, the four villains in The Tales of Hoffmann, Mosè in Mosè in Egitto, Marcel in Les Huguenots, and Gremin in Eugene Onegin.

Nicola Ghiuselev sang with Lyric Opera of Chicago on two occasions. First, in 1966, he was Nourabad in The Pearl Fishers along with Christiane Eda-Pierre, Alfredo Kraus, and Sesto Bruscantini, conducted by Jean Fournet. He also participated in the Italian Flood Relief Concert. Then, in the fall of 1989, he returned for Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville with Frederica von Stade, Thomas Allen, Frank Lopardo, and Claudio Desderi, conducted by Alessandro Pinzauti. The director was John Copley, and the sets were by John Conklin. [Names which are links on this page refer to my interviews elsewhere on my website.]

In December of 1989, Ghiuselev took time between performances to sit down with me for a conversation. He, like his Bulgarian-born compatriot Nicolai Ghiaurov, spoke in Italian, and my thanks go to Marina Vecci, Production Administrator of Lyric Opera, for providing the translation.

Bruce Duffie:   Thank you for taking the time to see me today.

Nicola Ghiuselev:   My pleasure!

BD:   You are mostly known for roles such as Boris Godunov, Aleko, and Philip II, and yet you are here in Chicago for a comic role.

Ghiuselev:   Yes, Don Basilio!

BD:   Do you enjoy singing comic roles as well as the great big dramatic parts?

Ghiuselev:   Yes! I am, as one would say, a basso-serio, as my character, my personality, my body, and my schooling are, but Basilio is a role that many other so-called serious basses have done. We tend not use that basso-serio name, as it implies other basses are not serious, when they are!! But Basilio is a very interesting role, and it’s not strictly comic. The opera is an opera-buffa, and Bartolo is a completely basso-buffo role, but Basilio, having that big aria La Calunnia, expresses very serious feelings. Basilio believes in what he’s saying in that aria, just as Iago expresses his own Credo. It is a sincere feeling that Basilio is expressing while he sings that aria, but naturally the result is that Basilio becomes a comic character in the opera because it is, in fact, a comic opera in itself, and the situation is comic. But the role of Basilio requires a dramatic bass. [Note that a few of the others who have sung this role at Lyric Opera (since 1954) include Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Boris Christoff, Paolo Montarsolo, Cesare Siepi, Nicolai Ghiaurov, and Ivo Vinco. Also, in 1924, when the company was called the Chicago Civic Opera, Feodor Chaliapin sang the role, and two days later was Boito’s Mefistofele. The following month, he sang Boris Godunov.]

BD:   Is comic opera a serious business?

Ghiuselev:   [Laughs] Certainly, very serious! It is very serious and more serious than the so-called opera-seria! It is more difficult to do comic opera than it is to do opera-seria.

BD:   Really? Why?

Ghiuselev:   Because, especially with regards to Rossini, it requires a flexibility of the behavior, and an acting ability of the voice, and a certain type of musicality. It requires a very sophisticated sort of musical preparation.

BD:   Does it ever get too serious?

Ghiuselev:   No, there is no need for it to be so serious. I don’t want to be misunderstood because what I do is a very serious thing. It requires a lot of study and preparation, and it requires having an enormous sense of responsibility. But on the other hand, it needs to have a sense of playfulness, because the theater is a game, it is a show. There is this element of playfulness in the theater that must remain at all levels, even though it’s a serious business. As the artist, the singer must be joyful inside, even if he does a serious sort of role. You must have wit, and spirit, and joy, and in the end, you must be happy.

BD:   Even a role such as Boris Godunov is happy and joyful?

Ghiuselev:   When I do Boris, it is better to go into the theater with a sense of joy and happiness, rather than with the sadness of Boris. With that sense of joy you are sure in yourself. The joy comes out of self-reliance, of well-being, or being in good voice. Then, the transformation happens whereby one becomes Boris with all this tragedy. If I were to do ten performances of Boris Godunov, I just couldn’t live for that entire time with the temperament and the tragedy of Boris every day. [He laughs]

BD:   When you are on the stage, do you become that character, or are you still portraying that character?

Ghiuselev:   This is a question to which only one answer is not possible. Sometimes it happens that I go to the theater already being in that character, and sometimes before the performance I am in a totally different frame of mind. There is not just one answer for every performance. It changes, and my mood changes according to the day. In any event, the artist is very well aware, and is conscious of what he or she has to be when they get on the stage, and what they have to portray. Even if I come in in a different frame of mind, I am already carrying in me the character that I’m going to become once I get on the stage. One is born with the ability to portray or to become a certain character. There are many great artists who have been able to do a certain character but not another character. They do a good job, but they don’t quite arrive to the end, or to the final truth of the character.

BD: Do you keep digging for this final truth at every performance that you give?

Ghiuselev: Every time! Even if it’s a role that one has done many times before, every time one does it, especially in a new production, something new is brought in. It is a mistake that the critics always come to the first performance of a run, to the premiere, because they do not notice in this particular case that new things happen on the stage at every performance. The characters do mature and ripen in each performance, and in the course of a run things get better and better. They grow deeper into the character. As you mentioned in the beginning of this interview, there are certain roles, such as Philip II or Boris Godunov, that it takes a whole lifetime to really mature as an artist. They mature with life and experience, because the roles are very psychologically deep. Therefore, you need a lot of understanding and delivery to be a basso-serio.

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BD: The range of your voice dictates what roles you can sing. Are you pleased with these characters that you must do?
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Ghiuselev:   Yes, certainly. I have always been truly very happy and contented with the voice that I have. I want to explain properly, because I have a basso-cantabile, basso-cantante. It’s a true bass, but I also have very high notes, easy high notes, which have allowed me to sing as a baritone sometimes. For example, Scarpia, Escamillo, The Count and Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, and other things which went very well. My voice has given me not only the chance of doing the bass roles that I do and for which I am known, but also of stretching myself to do other kinds of things, like these baritone roles for which I have had a lot of success, and to portray other characters that I’ve always liked. Also, my voice has enabled me to do equally well with equal success roles in the German, French, Italian, and Russian repertory. I speak Russian, Italian and French well, so I can sing in those languages.

BD:   Is it really necessary to speak the language before you can sing the role?

Ghiuselev:   Yes. Sometimes it’s possible to sing without knowing the language, but it’s a lot better to learn the language. [Much laughter]

BD:   Does the bass voice mature later than the higher voices?

Ghiuselev:   Yes, I think so. It’s normal, absolutely.

BD:   Is it special for you to sing Boris Godunov at the Bolshoi?

Ghiuselev:   Yes. For the Bolshoi it is special of me, and I will explain why. The last time I sang Boris for the Bolshoi was in April this year in the Mussorgsky Festival. It wasn’t difficult to do because it was Moscow, or because it was Russia, but because they have a production of the opera from 1948. It has been the same for forty years. It was a great pleasure for me to have a big success at that festival in Moscow at the Bolshoi, and it was very well loved and liked. So it was very gratifying for me.

BD:   Can you get the same reaction to Boris elsewhere outside of Russia?

Ghiuselev:   No, but I am certain it is possible for me to do the same Boris every time. I try to present who I feel Boris is. But, of course, a lot has to do with the director, and with the physical production, and with the conductor. Also, there is the question of the edition of Rimsky-Korsakov and the original of Mussorgsky.

BD:   Which edition do you prefer?

Ghiuselev:   I prefer the Rimsky-Korsakov edition, because it is more suited to my kind of voice, and there is a lot more pathos in it.

BD:   Is your recording of it the Rimsky-Korsakov edition?

Ghiuselev:   Two years ago, I recorded the Rimsky-Korsakov edition of the roles of Boris and Pimen together. This year (1989) I also recorded one disc with four roles — Boris, Pimen, Varlaam, and Andrey Shchelkalov! [That disc is shown at left.] Pimen in the original version is a very big role, with four arias! [The complete recording of the original version (released in 1991, where he sings Pimen) is shown below. Not pictured is a complete recording (from 1973) of the 1872 version, led by Asen Naidenov, where Ghiuselev sings both Boris and Pimen. The Bulgarian orchestra conductor Asen Naidenov, born September 12, 1899 in Varna. After study in Vienna (with Josef Marx) and Leipzig, he made his conducting debut in 1925 in a performance of Mignon at the Sofia National Opera, of which two decades later he became chief conductor. In the meantime he had undertaken further studies with Bruno Walter and Clemens Krauss. Naidenov was at the helm of the Sofia Opera for over thirty years until 1979. He died two days before his 96th birthday. In the Khovanshchina (also shown below), Ghiuselev sings Dosifey, which was the role Chaliapin had sung.] It is absolutely formidable, and it’s really very nice, but when I think of Boris, I really prefer Rimsky-Korsakov, even though I did it at La Scala and Covent Garden in the original. They were very good and a big success.

BD:   Speaking about recordings, do you sing the same in the recording studio as you do on the stage?

Ghiuselev:   Yes, I sing the same. The only thing that is different is when one sings in front of a microphone, it allows you to make more hues of coloring than you otherwise would be able to do. One uses the microphone as if it were a camera that looks at you. One can can color the voice more. However, I never sing other than with a full voice, and with all the intensity that I would use when singing in a big theater. Perhaps it is with even more intensity.

BD:   Are you pleased with the records that have come out?

Ghiuselev:   Yes, I am very happy with what I’ve made. When I recorded Don Carlos in Bulgaria, I sang Philip II, the Grand Inquisitor, and the Monk, and for a film I did the aria of Philip, and the duet with the Inquisitor, and I played both roles! It was very interesting for me.

BD:   [With a gentle nudge] That doesn’t make you schizophrenic?

Ghiuselev:   Ah, schizophrenic! [Laughs] No, it was a great pleasure, as well as a challenge. It really stretches my vocal possibilities, and allows me to arrive at a point that I like. I don’t know if this is written in any of my biographies, but I also studied painting. I’m a professional painter. For me all this is like being a painter.

BD: So, all of your roles are vocal portraits?

Ghiuselev: Yes, yes, vocal portraits! Yes, absolutely! Vocal and physical, because on the stage you use both your body and face and everything.

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BD:   Tell me about Aleko.

Ghiuselev:   The character of Aleko or the music?

BD:   Both. You’ve made the recording [which is shown below-left].

Ghiuselev:   Yes, I have a recording. Aleko is a very interesting person. The opera was written by Rachmaninov when he was only eighteen or twenty years old. It’s the work of a dissertation in order to get a degree. It is an opera of Pushkin that he called Zingari [The Gypsies]. Aleko is an intelligent Russian intellectual. Just like the hippies in later days, they left town and the urban life, and went to live with the gypsies. He falls in love with a beautiful gypsy girl, who left him the following year. When he sings his big aria, he decides to kill the beautiful girl and her lover. At that time he’s a desperate man. It’s a very romantic and passionate opera, with gorgeous music. I have another recording of just arias where I sing Aleko, and other old gypsy songs. It’s very nice. [He then starts to sing!] As a bass, I love it because Aleko is for a bass-baritone.

During his final year at the Conservatory, Rachmaninoff's request to take his final theory and composition exams a year early was granted, for which he wrote Aleko, a one-act opera based on the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin, in seventeen days. It premiered in May 1892 at the Bolshoi Theatre. Tchaikovsky attended and praised Rachmaninoff for his work. Rachmaninoff believed it was "sure to fail", but the production was so successful the theater agreed to produce it starring singer Feodor Chaliapin, who would go on to become a lifelong friend. [Those two musicians are shown in the photo at left.] Aleko earned Rachmaninoff the highest mark at the Conservatory and a Great Gold Medal, a distinction only previously awarded to Taneyev and Arseny Koreshchenko. Zverev, a member of the exam committee, gave the composer his gold watch, thus ending years of estrangement. On May 29, 1892, at age nineteen, Rachmaninoff graduated from the Conservatory with highest honors in both composition and piano, and was issued a diploma which allowed him to officially style himself as a "Free Artist".

Upon graduating, Rachmaninoff continued to compose and signed a 500-ruble publishing contract with Gutheil, under which Aleko, Two Pieces (Op. 2) and Six Songs (Op. 4) were among the first published. The composer had previously earned 15 rubles a month in giving piano lessons at a girls’ school...

BD:   Is opera for everyone?

Ghiuselev:   I would say it is, even though it often does not happen like that. People seem to think that it’s not for everyone. Nowadays, all the opera theaters have a lot of audience. It’s no longer just for the wealthy and for those as it used to be. For instance, in Germany one can go to the opera every day. Every theater has an opera day, and in the Eastern countries, people can go to the opera since it costs very little. It’s a popular thing, and is something for the people. In Bulgaria, for example, it is both popular and for the people.

BD:   Are there any great Bulgarian operas?

Ghiuselev:   Yes, there are some but they are not known outside Bulgaria. They are very nice. I have sung three or four Bulgarian operas. When I was young, one was written for me by Marin Goleminov [Zahari, the Icon Painter (1972)]. The character was a famous Bulgarian painter who was making icons. It’s love story, naturally, and it’s a beautiful opera.

Marin Petrov Goleminov (Bulgarian: Марин Петров Големинов; 28 September 1908 – 19 February 2000) was a Bulgarian composer, violinist, conductor and pedagogue.

Goleminov was born in Kyustendil, Bulgaria. The son of an attorney, he studied law before switching to music. He studied music at Sofia, Bulgaria, Paris, France, and Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Having returned to Bulgaria, he played the second violin in the famous Avramov Quartet (1935-38). He was one of the initiators of the foundation of the Chamber Orchestra of Radio Sofia and served as its conductor (1936-38).

In 1943 he was appointed to the faculty of the Bulgarian State Academy of Music in Sofia to teach orchestration, conducting and composition. From 1954 to 1956 he served as Rector of the Sofia Opera, and as Director of the same organization from 1965 to 1967. In 1976 he was presented with the Gottfried von Herder Award of the Vienna University, and in 1989 was made an Academician of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He died in Espinho, Portugal.

Goleminov composed operas, such as Ivaylo, The Golden Bird, Zachariy the Zograph, Thracian Idols, the dance drama The Daughter of Kaloyan, four symphonies, eight string quartets, chamber music for various ensembles, etc. Goleminov was also a music publisher and author of theoretical works such as Problems of the Orchestration, Back to the Springs of Bulgarian Tonal Art, Behind the Scenes of the Creative Process.

Goleminov's compositions draw heavily on the traditional rhythms and melodic patterns of Bulgarian folk music, while also exploring more modernist classical trends. His son Mihail was also a composer.

goleminov

BD:   Since you’re a bass, you don’t get the girl very often.

Ghiuselev:   [Smiles] Ahhh, it depends! Even Don Giovanni doesn’t get the girl! Count Almaviva [in Figaro] gets the girl, but mostly they all lose the girl!

BD:   Do you wish you got the girl more often on stage?

Ghiuselev:   No. It’s enough to get the girl in real life! [Gales of laughter]

BD: [We then took care of a couple of technical items, and I asked if he would be returning to Chicago.]

Ghiuselev: I like very much Chicago, really. I would really come back with pleasure.

BD:   Is this a good house to sing in?

Ghiuselev:   The house is very nice, and the people are all very nice.

BD: [Noting that he was most gracious not to smoke during our encounter.]

Ghiuselev:   I am smoker who sings.

BD:   Not a singer who smokes?

Ghiuselev:   Not a singer who smokes! Giuseppe di Stefano said that he is a smoker who sings! [Much laughter, then continuing with another famous quote] Del Monaco likes to say that a tenor is not a human being. It’s a biological state! [More laughter]

BD:   Is being a bass human?

Ghiuselev:   Yes, the bass is a human. Absolutely!

Marina Vecci (the translator) continues with a brief compliment of her own:   You see basses are nice and relaxed. They’re wonderful! They enjoy life! [Indicating Sig. Ghiuselev...] He has a wonderful disposition, and is a wonderful man, always relaxed, and smiling.

BD:   Do you feel that you release some of your personal tensions on the stage by portraying these heavy characters?

Ghiuselev:   No, no, it’s not possible to say that. It’s just the discipline that an artist has to have to go on the stage and do something else. That discipline helps to release tension, because one has to get rid of all the problems that one has in life. It helps the cutting and separating from that. Going to something else is great tension releaser. The artist is full of sacrifices and trials, but there are many rewards and gratifications. Beyond the traveling and seeing new places, and even the financial rewards (which necessarily matter), there is the satisfaction of always interpreting this gorgeous music. In my repertory, what I sing is written by geniuses. I enjoy interpreting this beauty and this greatness. I can live through the great ideas of that made art, and the great ideas of the whole of humanity. Just being able to do this is something that gives me joy and happiness. Then, just the mere fact of being able to do all this with your own voice, and being part of all this, is a great joy. I cross myself in the Orthodox way, and thank God every morning for this. If you look at the cast of this Barber of Seville, they’re like me! These people work with great pleasure. We had a very beautiful rehearsal time. Everybody was happy, and it was a wonderful time. The atmosphere was good, and it was just a very pleasurable thing right from the beginning, with the maestro, the stage director, the singers, everybody.

See my interviews with Robert Merrill, Marilyn Horne, Carlo Bergonzi, Piero De Palma, Fiorenza Cossotto, and Lella Cuberli

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See my interviews with Richard Leech, Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, and Martina Arroyo

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See my interviews with Wiesław Ochman, Stefania Toczyska, and Mstislav Rostropovich
[Incidentally, the interview with Rostropovich includes two photos of him with Prokofiev!]

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See my interview with Ann Murray

While some of my guests have local streets or monuments named for them, (and in the case of condutor Ferdinand Leitner, a bridge!), to the best of my knowledge, Nicola Ghiuselev is the only one to have a remote mountain given his name.

Mount Ghiuselev (which is named after the Bulgarian opera singer) is the ice-covered mountain of elevation 1082 m in Avroleva Heights on Brabant Island (shown in map a right, and which is named for the Belgian province that is the locale of the opera Lohengrin) in the Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica. It has steep and partly ice-free north and northwest slopes, and surmounts Mitev Glacier to the northwest, Pampa Passage to the southeast and Svetovrachene Glacier to the southwest.

Mount Ghiuselev is located at 64°13′17″S 62°07′25″W, which is 4.16 km south-southwest of Petroff Point, 3.8 km west-southwest of Mitchell Point, 3.1 km north by east of Einthoven Hill and 3.2 km east by south of Opizo Peak.

This conversation was recorded in Chicago, on December 11, 1989. Portions were broadcast on WNIB the following day, and again in 1990, 1991, 1996 and 1997. This transcription was made in 2025, and posted on this website at that time. My thanks go to Marina Vecci, Production Administrator of Lyric Opera, for providing the translation during our conversation. My thanks also to British soprano Una Barry for her help in preparing this website presentation.

To see a full list (with links) of interviews which have been transcribed and posted on this website, click here. To read my thoughts on editing these interviews for print, as well as a few other interesting observations, click here.

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Award - winning broadcaster Bruce Duffie was with WNIB, Classical 97 in Chicago from 1975 until its final moment as a classical station in February of 2001. His interviews have also appeared in various magazines and journals since 1980, and he now continues his broadcast series on WNUR-FM, as well as on Contemporary Classical Internet Radio.

You are invited to visit his website for more information about his work, including selected transcripts of other interviews, plus a full list of his guests. He would also like to call your attention to the photos and information about his grandfather, who was a pioneer in the automotive field more than a century ago. You may also send him E-Mail with comments, questions and suggestions.