Boris Christoff
Boris Christoff was born in Plovdiv, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria on May 18th, 1914 and is the Opera Singer. At the age of 79, Boris Christoff biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Boris Christoff, born 18 May 1914 to June 29, 1993, was one of Bulgaria's top basses of the twentieth century.
Early life
He was born in Plovdiv on May 18th, 1914, to parents Kyryl Christov and Rayna Teodorova. Boris Christoff demonstrated his singing abilities early in his life and performed as a boy in Sofia's choir. His father was a very popular cantor at Resen, attracting the faithful to the Bulgarian Exarchist Church, where he was chanting.
He earned a degree in law in the 1930s and started a life as a magistrate. He continued to perform in his spare time in Sofia's Gusla Chorus, winning a great deal as the chorus soloist in 1940. Christoff moved to Italy in May 1942 for two years in the core Italian bass repertoire by the great baritone Riccardo Stracciari of a previous generation.
Performance career
Christoff returned to Italy in December 1945 after several guest appearances and recitals in Austria in 1944 and 1945. Colline in La Bohème, a French operatic debut, appeared in Reggio Calabria on March 12, 1946. Christoff appeared in a number of roles at Venice's La Fenice, the Rome Opera, Covent Garden in London, and Rio de Janeiro.
He was invited to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1950 but was refused admission into the United States as a result of the McCarran Immigration Act, which barred citizens of Eastern bloc countries from entering the country. Cesare Siepi, the young Italian basso, was able to fill the role. Christoff made his operatic debut at the San Francisco Opera in 1956, after the restrictions were loosened. He refused any further invitations to the Metropolitan and never appeared there. Christoff returned to work in 1965 after a brief absence due to brain tumour surgery in 1964, but at a much slower rate. He was allowed to return to Bulgaria in 1967 for the first time since 1945, for his mother's funeral.
On-stage appearances in the 1970s were becoming more rare. With a last concert at the Accademia di Bulgaria in Rome on June 22, 1986, he brought his career to an end. He died in Rome in 1993 and his body was returned to Bulgaria, lay in repose in Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, and later was buried in section 46 of Sofia Central Cemetery.
Awards
- Sonning Award (1969; Denmark)