Bantcho Bantchevsky
Encyclopedia
Bantcho Bantchevsky was a Bulgaria
n-born American
singer, singing coach, and translator
. He is remembered today primarily for his death, a suicide
which took place at the Metropolitan Opera
in New York City
during a nationally broadcast performance.
, and had little formal musical training in his youth. Village cultural life, which centered around traditional singing
and dancing
, inspired him to attend the Sofia Conservatory, where he learned to play the flute
and piano
and studied opera
.
Bantchevsky found a career for himself performing on Rakovska Street in Sofia
, known as "Bulgaria's Broadway
", and became well-known during the 1930s; however, he chose to leave Bulgaria when it became an ally of the Soviet Union
during World War II
. He spent the 1940s finding work around Europe
, singing opera in Czechoslovakia
and Vienna
, and becoming a member of the Don Cossack Choir Serge Jaroff
. He also appeared in films and plays in Berlin
, including a small part in a performance of Macbeth
. Early in the 1950s, he emigrated to the United States
.
Bantchevsky found it difficult to gain stage work in New York, as he found himself competing against younger, native-born performers. He turned instead to coaching, also writing political satire
for Radio Free Europe
. A polyglot
— he spoke German
, French
, Italian
, and Russian
in addition to English
and his native Bulgarian
— he also translated material for visiting opera singers. In this way he met singers such as Anna Tomowa-Sintow
and Luciano Pavarotti
. He also sang in the choir of New York's Bulgarian Orthodox Church
.
Bantchevsky was a great fan of the opera, and was a regular at the Metropolitan. He usually sat in the orchestra seats, using tickets which he had been given by friends who worked in the company.
At the time of his death, Bantchevsky lived alone. He was survived by two children and four grandchildren, who lived in Europe.
, but checked out of the hospital after a week.
On January 23, 1988, Bantchevsky attended a Saturday matinée performance of Giuseppe Verdi
's Macbeth
; unusually, he chose to sit in the balcony seats. Witnesses later recalled that he caused some disturbances not long after the performance began.
At around 3:30 in the afternoon, during the intermission
between the second and third acts, Bantchevsky went to the balcony railing and sat down on it. When an usher approached and requested that he remove himself, he tipped over backwards and fell into the orchestra seats. His head hit on another railing on the way down, and he fell into an aisle with part of a broken seat on top of him. He was pronounced dead by the time the police arrived; the medical examiner
later ruled his death a suicide. The audience was kept waiting for over an hour before being informed of what had happened, and the remainder of the performance was canceled.
As it was a Saturday afternoon, the opera was being broadcast worldwide as part of the Metropolitan's broadcast series
. Peter Allen was later commended by many observers for keeping up an impressive, nearly entirely improvised, string of commentary during the extended intermission.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n-born American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer, singing coach, and translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
. He is remembered today primarily for his death, a suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
which took place at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
during a nationally broadcast performance.
Life
Bantchevsky was born in LovechLovech
Lovech is a town in north-central Bulgaria with a population of 36,296 as of February 2011. It is the administrative centre of the Lovech Province and of the subordinate Lovech Municipality. The town is located about 150 km northeast from the capital city of Sofia...
, and had little formal musical training in his youth. Village cultural life, which centered around traditional singing
Music of Bulgaria
The music of Bulgaria refers to all forms of music associated with Bulgaria like classical, folk, popular music, etc. Bulgarian music is part of the Balkan tradition, which stretches across Southeastern Europe, and has its own distinctive sound...
and dancing
Bulgarian dances
Bulgarian folk dances are intimately related to the music of Bulgaria. This distinctive feature of Balkan folk music is the asymmetrical meter, built up around various combinations of 'quick' and 'slow' beats...
, inspired him to attend the Sofia Conservatory, where he learned to play the flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and studied opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
.
Bantchevsky found a career for himself performing on Rakovska Street in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
, known as "Bulgaria's Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
", and became well-known during the 1930s; however, he chose to leave Bulgaria when it became an ally of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He spent the 1940s finding work around Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, singing opera in Czechoslovakia
First Republic of Czechoslovakia
-Independence:The Czechoslovak declaration of independence was published by the Czechoslovak National Council, signed by Masaryk, Štefánik and Beneš on October 18, 1918 in Paris, and proclaimed on October 28 in Prague...
and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, and becoming a member of the Don Cossack Choir Serge Jaroff
Don Cossack Choir Serge Jaroff
The Don Cossack Choir Serge Jaroff was a men's chorus of exiled Russian Cossacks founded in 1921 by Serge Jaroff and conducted for almost sixty years by him.- Çilingir :...
. He also appeared in films and plays in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, including a small part in a performance of Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
. Early in the 1950s, he emigrated to the United States
Immigration to the United States
Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...
.
Bantchevsky found it difficult to gain stage work in New York, as he found himself competing against younger, native-born performers. He turned instead to coaching, also writing political satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
for Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
. A polyglot
Polyglot (person)
A polyglot is someone with a high degree of proficiency in several languages. A bilingual person can speak two languages fluently, whereas a trilingual three; above that the term multilingual may be used.-Hyperpolyglot:...
— he spoke German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
in addition to English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and his native Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
— he also translated material for visiting opera singers. In this way he met singers such as Anna Tomowa-Sintow
Anna Tomowa-Sintow
Anna Tomowa-Sintow is a Bulgarian soprano who has sung to great acclaim in all the major opera houses around the world in a repertoire that includes Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, and Strauss. She enjoyed a particularly close professional relationship with conductor Herbert von Karajan...
and Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti
right|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...
. He also sang in the choir of New York's Bulgarian Orthodox Church
Bulgarian Orthodox Church
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with some 6.5 million members in the Republic of Bulgaria and between 1.5 and 2.0 million members in a number of European countries, the Americas and Australia...
.
Bantchevsky was a great fan of the opera, and was a regular at the Metropolitan. He usually sat in the orchestra seats, using tickets which he had been given by friends who worked in the company.
At the time of his death, Bantchevsky lived alone. He was survived by two children and four grandchildren, who lived in Europe.
Death
Bantchevsky had been in failing health for some time, and friends noticed that he was less cheerful than usual. Three weeks before his death, he suffered a small heart attackMyocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
, but checked out of the hospital after a week.
On January 23, 1988, Bantchevsky attended a Saturday matinée performance of Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Macbeth
Macbeth (opera)
Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name...
; unusually, he chose to sit in the balcony seats. Witnesses later recalled that he caused some disturbances not long after the performance began.
At around 3:30 in the afternoon, during the intermission
Intermission
An intermission or interval is a recess between parts of a performance or production, such as for a theatrical play, opera, concert, or film screening....
between the second and third acts, Bantchevsky went to the balcony railing and sat down on it. When an usher approached and requested that he remove himself, he tipped over backwards and fell into the orchestra seats. His head hit on another railing on the way down, and he fell into an aisle with part of a broken seat on top of him. He was pronounced dead by the time the police arrived; the medical examiner
Medical examiner
A medical examiner is a medically qualified government officer whose duty is to investigate deaths and injuries that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictions to initiate inquests....
later ruled his death a suicide. The audience was kept waiting for over an hour before being informed of what had happened, and the remainder of the performance was canceled.
As it was a Saturday afternoon, the opera was being broadcast worldwide as part of the Metropolitan's broadcast series
Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts are a regular series of weekly broadcasts on network radio of full-length opera performances. They are transmitted live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City...
. Peter Allen was later commended by many observers for keeping up an impressive, nearly entirely improvised, string of commentary during the extended intermission.