FROM FOBI 2024: Text to the exhibition "Kamen Chanev in photos and documents"
News публикувана на: 26.12.2024
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Kamen Chanev (27.08.1964 - 26.11.2020), opera singer, tenor
Born in Sliven. Graduated with French from the "Zahari Stoyanov" high school in his hometown. He sang in the children's choir Druzhnaya Song, directed by Metodi Grigorov, and later in the mixed choir Dobri Chintulov. He took his first singing lessons with prof. Sima Ivanova, and continued to work with her after he was admitted to the National Academy of Music "Prof. Sima". After he graduated from the Academy of Music of the Russian Academy of Music "Pancho Vladigerov". After the first year he transferred to Konstantsa Vachkova. He then went on to specialise in Rome, at the Boris Hristov Academy, where he worked with Alexandrina Milcheva. He is a prize-winner of the Jussi Björling Competition in Sweden.
In 1992, for five seasons, he was a soloist of the Sofia Opera. From 1997 he was in Prague for two years, after which he toured with success to the most prestigious world stages. In Bulgaria, apart from Sofia, he appeared in all opera houses, but Plovdiv and Stara Zagora occupy a special place, where, days after his debut in Otello, on 6 November 2020, he was subdued by Kovid. He remains there forever, buried in the courtyard of the Cathedral of St. Dimitri.
How few sentences can describe the artist's life. And how much more can be said about him - about the excitement, the doubts, the hours spent learning the new role, perfecting the technique, searching for the right accents. Kamen is one of the singers whose development I have followed for a long time. Ever since Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville and the Duke in Rigoletto at the Sofia Opera. A fabulous, crystalline, sunny and touching voice, always accompanied by a rapturous reception from the audience and huge applause. Then came Rudolph in "Bohemi" with his sincere confession of love, remorse, pain and fleeting hope. How sincere and pure he was as Cassio in Othello! Here I come to the heroic images, in which Kamen masterfully revealed the dramatic accents without losing that first lightness, airiness and freshness. Emblematic in his incarnation is the role of Calaf "Turandot". Radames in "Aida" was the heroic general, but also the man tenderly in love. It was the same with Manrico in Il Trovatore with a vivid delineation of the palette of emotions torn by duty and responsibility. I also remember Don José in Carmen with the obsession for the beautiful gypsy so developed in the character. Don Carlos with his childlike purity of emotion and expression, Cavaradossi in Tosca, who so suited his sensitivity, the natural beauty of his timbre. I would add Turidu in "La Chesta Rural," Canio in "Pagliacci," with which he immediately riveted the viewer's attention.
I did not see him as Othello, a role he dreamed of doing. He said he was ready for it. We left with the agreement to talk after the premiere. A conversation that never took place...
Kamen is kept through the Tenor Competition created by Tanya Ivanova, with the first edition in Plovdiv and the second in Stara Zagora. "Opera is an art that is hard to describe... You connect through your voice with God. Because the only divine instrument is the voice. It is no coincidence that in our Eastern Orthodox tradition instruments are forbidden in the church because the only instrument, God's instrument, is the voice. "The human voice," Kamen Chanev used to say.
Svetlana Dimitrova The text was created for the exhibition "Kamen Chanev in photos and documents" The exhibition is organized by the Kamen Chanev Foundation and is presented at the 54th International Exhibition of the Armenian Voice. Festival of Opera and Ballet Art - Stara Zagora, in cooperation with the Municipality of Stara Zagora, State Opera - Stara Zagora and State Opera - Plovdiv. With thanks to.