Palermo (Italy) 1971 – film (1975) - Hamburg (Germany) 1976 & 1978 – Salzburg & Vienna (Austria) 1978 – West Berlin (Germany) 1979, 1982, 1984 & 1986, Varna (1979) - Venice, Pistoia, Genoa, La Spezia (Italy) 1980, Sofia 1981 – Mannheim (Germany) 1982
“Dear Raina, the Austrian television broadcasted last night our Trovatore from the Vienna Opera.
I was excited and happy with its artistic value; I was as fascinated as I was on the day of the performance. Your interpretation, both from vocal and artistic point of view, shall remain forever a model of artistic perfection.
And we have to admit that the story and staging of the opera have a real value in their simplicity.
I embrace you with all my heart, and with my kindest regards, yours
Herbert von Karajan
Salzburg, 10 June 1986
“Her limpid soprano voice is managed with a virtuoso lightness and has an expressiveness which opens like a rainbow of colours, from a triumphant tone to the paleness of death. She gives a moving human dimension of the image of Leonora.”
MAX KAINDL-HOENIG
Salzburger Nachrichten
“In Trovatore her voice has a darker, more solemn, more regal tint. Certain melodies, but also the verses of the libretto, confer it to those singers who have a feeling for real Verdian melodrama. In Kabaivanska’s singing this patina of melancholy nobility gave a sensation of gentle and almost dreamy sadness. Even the cabaletta (which Karajan paced with unusual slowness) was permeated by it. Her Leonora was always suffering, was wounded to death from the beginning and inclined to sadness even in the fioriture. I thought that one could say anything about this performance, but the conductor and soprano lacked in imagination.”
RODOLFO CELLETTI
Discoteca HI-FI
It is enough that Raina Kabaivanska enters the stage and sings a memorable «Tracea la notte» and the performance finds its tone. The aria “D’amor sull’ali rosee” reveals the height of a vibrant and burning timbre, performed in a single breath, with admirable knowledge of legato and voluptuous pianissimi.