It was one of the operas in which he and Freni sang

It was one of the operas in which he and Freni sang together, and in which they were ideally suited. Boris immediately became a rival to M?istoph?s as the singer’s most popular role; he sang it in Chicago, at Covent Garden in 1977, at the Vienna State Opera, at La Scala, in San Francisco, at the Paris Op?, in Barcelona and, in 1990, at the Metropolitan. His interpretation, less hysterical than that of Christoff, was extremely powerful, and very moving in the death scene.Another of Ghiaurov’s best Verdi roles was Jacopo Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, which he sang at La Scala in 1971, with the Scala company in Moscow in 1974 and in Paris in 1978, at the Met, in Tokyo and in Munich. The same year he appeared for the first time at the Salzburg Festival, singing his first Boris Godunov under the baton of Herbert von Karajan.

M?istoph?s in Faust, which he had sung in Russian and Italian as well as French, was his most popular role, and one for which his rich-toned voice and larger-than-life personality were perfectly suited.Born in Velingrad, Bulgaria, Ghiaurov was 20 when, after his military service, he entered the Sofia Conservatory. His professor, Cristo Brambarov, had been a well-known baritone singer and had a reputation as a very fine teacher. In 1962 he made his Covent Garden d?t as the Padre Guardiano in La forza del destino, another very congenial role in his growing repertory of Verdi operas.Ghiaurov made his American d?t in 1963 at Chicago, singing M?istoph?s, and his Metropolitan Opera d?t in 1965, again in Faust. Two years later he made his d?t at La Scala, Milan as Varlaam; the role of Boris was sung by his fellow Bulgarian Boris Christoff. During the next decade at La Scala he also sang M?istoph?s, the title roles of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Rossini’s Mos?n Egitto, Cr? in Cherubini’s Medea and Philip II in Don Carlos, which was to become one of his very finest characterisations. He excelled in the great bass roles of Mussorgsky and other Russian composers, but he also became a magnificent interpreter of the operas of Verdi.

In 1956 he moved to the Bolshoi in Moscow, singing his first M?istoph?s – in Russian.Ghiaurov sang the same role – in Italian this time – for his first appearance in Italy, at Bologna in 1958. In 1950 the young Ghiaurov was awarded a state scholarship to study at the Moscow Conservatory, where he remained for five years. After winning an international singing competition in Paris, he was engaged by the Sofia Opera and made his d?t in 1955 as Don Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. One of the finest bass singers of the second half of the 20th century, Nicolai Ghiaurov was born in Bulgaria but adopted Italy as his second country, both in his professional and personal lives. Nicolai Ghiaurov, opera singer: born Velingrad, Bulgaria 13 September 1929; married first Zlatina Mishakova (one son, one daughter), second Mirella Freni; died Modena, Italy 2 June 2004. He left for the Ottawa television station CJOH, before going back to CBC in 1972. For the next 17 years he worked for CBC as a television news presenter and on radio as host of the phone-in Cross Country Checkup, CBO Morning and the classical music programme Mostly Music.Elton’s daughter Vicky appeared in Coronation Street in 1961 as the first baby born in the serial – a boy, Elsie Tanner’s grandson, Paul Cheveski.Anthony Hayward.

Despite being offered a scholarship, he returned to Detroit and WXYZ-TV.Following the start of commercial television in Britain, Elton became one of a number of Canadians to be hired by ITV. At Granada Television (1957-63), as well as being responsible for Shadow Squad and Biggles, Elton produced two courtroom drama series, The Verdict Is Yours (1958-59) and In Court Today (1959). By the time of Coronation Street’s launch, he was executive producer for drama series and serials.Elton returned to Canada in 1963, hoping to capitalise on his success in Britain. But he and, at that time, Coronation Street were unknown, so he washed floors in the Shell Oil building in Toronto until landing a job as a script editor at the national broadcasting organisation, CBC. In 1951, he travelled to Britain, auditioned at Rada and spent a term there. Shortly after his parents finally married, in 1935, Elton’s father died and, three years later, he and his sister moved in with their mother in Detroit.From acting in college plays, at Wayne State University, Detroit, Harry Elton went on to tour with a puppet show and perform in repertory theatre.