One of the memories сhe cherishes until the end of his days is related to Arturo Toscanini. She also shared with her student – ​​tenor Bozhidar Nikolov. 

"The conductor was extremely strict at rehearsals", recounts the story Magdalena Gigova. "At a performance of "André Chénier" she got the text wrong and entered too late. Afraid that the maestro would be very harsh, she ran to his room during the intermission to apologize to him. In the corridors of La Scala she pushed the sliding doors and who did she hit? Maestro Toscanini! She began to apologize to him for the awkward situation and especially for having confused the text and the introduction. But he called her "Bulgarian Rose" and told her: "You have to be 120% ready for rehearsals, and during a performance anything can happen. We are living people, nothing has happened, you have not made a mistake." 

While Elena Doskova was at the peak of her fame, the admirer of opera and a frequent visitor to La Scala, Commander Francesco Ricardi, captured her heart. Not long after, they got married, and when her career came to a dramatic end, he accompanied her to Bulgaria. The merchant and the former singer settled in the Sofia neighborhood of Knyazhevo at the foot of Mount Vitosha. A few years later, an amnesty was declared in Italy for Mussolini's opponents, and the former enemy of the regime returned to his homeland, only to die in a mysterious accident a month later. 

The blows of fate followed one after another - as if the inability to sing, the loss of her great love seemed to be insufficient for Elena Doskova-Ricardi. Thus, after the communist coup in 1944, the new government spared her nothing in its methods of dealing with the so-called "political enemies". 

"The third blow came after September 9, when the government confiscated all the properties she had bought with the money she earned from the opera, with the exception of the house in Knyazhevo, for the benefit of the state," adds Magdalena Gigova. "A new disaster came - she had never been involved in politics, but she was sent to a forced labour camp. A few months later she was released, but the horror and humiliation remained in her mind for a very long time. Added to all this was the lack of funds, because she had neither a salary nor a pension." 

Elena Doskova-Ricardi passed away at the age of 88 - until the last moment surrounded in her home by the portraits of the great opera singers with whom she had the privilege of sharing a stage.

Photos: State archives in Gabrovo, BNR archive

Text: Diana Tsankova (Based on a material of Magdalena Gigova, broadcast on Radio Sofia of the Bulgarian National Radio)

English publication: Rositsa Petkova