Una macchia e qui tuttora

Raina Kabaivanska (Bulgarian: Райна Кабаиванска) (December 15, 1934) is a Bulgarian opera singer, one of the leading lyrico-spinto sopranos of her generation, particularly associated with Verdi and Puccini, although she sang a wide range of roles. Born Raina Jakimowa in Burgas, Bulgaria, she studied in Sofia with Prokopowa and Jossifow, and made her debut at the Bulgarian National Opera in Sofia as Tatjana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin in 1957. The following year, she left for Italy for further studies with Zina Fumagalli-Riva in Milan and with Giulia Tess in Vercelli. Two years later she made a breakthrough in Fano, Italy, as Nedda in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. In 1961, she gave her first performance at La Scala in Milan, as Agnese in Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda, opposite Dame Joan Sutherland. She sang widely in Italy, Genoa, Venice, Parma and notably in Turin in 1973, as Elena in I vespri siciliani, in the only production ever directed by Maria Callas. In 1962, she made her debuts at both the Royal Opera House in London, as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as Nedda. She went on performing at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Paris Opéra, the Vienna State Opera, the Budapest Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, the Dallas Opera, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, etc. She also appeared in a few opera films, notably Pagliacci, opposite Jon Vickers in 1968, Il trovatore, opposite Franco Bonisolli, in 1975, and Tosca, opposite Plácido Domingo, in 1976. A versatile singer with a beautiful voice and fine musicianship, she is also a singing-actress of considerable ability...

Lyrics & English Translation

LADY MACBETH
There's still a spot here.
Away, I tell you, curse you!
One, two, it is time!
Are you shaking? Don't you dare go in?
A soldier and so cowardly?
Shame! Come on, hurry!
Who would have thought that there would be
So much blood in that old man?

DOCTOR
What did she say?

LADY MACBETH
The Thane of Fife
Was he not recently a husband and father?
What happened?

GENTLEWOMAN and DOCTOR
Oh, horror!

LADY MACBETH
(looking at her hands)
Shall I never be able
To clean these hands?
There's still human blood here.
The perfumes
Of all Arabia could not clean
This little hand.
Alas!

DOCTOR
Is she moaning?

LADY MACBETH
Put on your nightgown.
Come on, wash yourself!
Banquo is dead and no-one
Has ever come back from the grave.

DOCTOR
This too?

LADY MACBETH
To bed, to bed ...
What's done cannot be undone.
Someone is knocking! Come on, Macbeth,
Do not let your pallor accuse you.

GENTLEWOMAN and DOCTOR
Oh, horror!
Lord, have mercy on her!


A link to this wonderful artists personal Website:

Please Enjoy!

I send my kind and warm regards,