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Boris Christoff

Boris Christoff (Bulgarian: Борис Христов) (May 18, 1914, Plovdiv, Bulgaria – June 28, 1993, Rome, Italy) was a Bulgarian basso opera singer. As a young man Boris commenced to study law. Music being his chief hobby, he spent much of his leisure as a member of an amateur male voice choir. His fine voice attracted the attention of a patron of the Arts who sent him to Italy in 1942, were he studied in Rome under the famous baritone Riccardo Stracchiari. Later he went to Salzburg to study the German repertoire and at the end of the war he found himself in a displaced persons' camp. He was successful in returning to Italy and in 1946 he made his first public appearance there as a concert singer. In the autumn of the same year, the chance hearing of a broadcast led to the offer of a contract to record exclusively for "His Master's Voice". Professional operatic engagements soon followed, and by the time he was 30 years of age he had an International reputation as a worthy successor to the great Fedor Chaliapine (see [a852710]), whom he resembles closely both in the superb quality of his voice and in the vividness of his characterisation of the rôles he takes. He is now one of the principal singers at La Scala, Milan, the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. He also sung at the Edinburgh and other International Music Festivals.