Acting and singing on stage demand rude health. And you must persuade yourself that you are in "rude health" every night, irrespective of that nagging toothache, heavy cold or row with your spouse. 

I’m reminded of the importance of discipline in show business, not mere talent alone, when I meet Bulgarian actor and singer Orlin Goranov. He’s just travelled a staggering 48 000km over the past month, including a US tour with his company, Teatro Lirico, an international group composed of artists from many countries.

Looking a tad wan and careworn, Goranov recalls a comment by one of his idols, Jose Carreras, that he only feels really healthy twice a year and these – needless to say – are the occasions on which he is NOT summoned to perform.

On stage, Goranov has a charismatic and comfortable presence with a deep tenor’s voice. And, according to the swooning ladies at a wrap-up party for Mission London – he’s a very handsome fellow to boot. I wouldn’t know about that, of course.

Off stage, he is a quietly spoken, self-effacing chameleon who says he never hankered after fame. He just wanted to sing.

"Live performing is not easy. I always try to do my best, whether as a singer or actor. But I don’t think about being a star at all," he says.

His 10 minutes’ screen time in Mission London, based on the popular Alek Popov novel, took just four days’ shooting. Goranov played the Bulgarian president. "It’s a dark drama, but we need films like this right now because many people here are still ‘sleeping’ in Bulgaria," he says. "Some of the events in this movie" – which mostly chronicles hilarious misadventures at London’s Bulgarian embassy – "are somehow quintessentially Bulgarian occurrences and that’s very bad," Goranov says. "Many people in Bulgaria still don’t know what to make of their newly-won liberty. Somebody has to make something of this country and artists must lead the way because politicians over the past 20 years have failed," he says.

Subversive influences
Goranov’s most famous hit is The World Is For Two alongside his longtime singing parter Kristina Dimitrova. "Over the past 25 years we made more than 30 to 40 records," he tells me. During the days of Zhivkov’s rule, Goranov, now 52, performed in other communist countries – including North Korea and the then Soviet Union – but he also managed to venture to places beyond the reach of most Bulgarians - Belgium, Italy and Austria.

Did he ever think of absconding, I wonder?

"A stone always stays in the same place," Goranov says. "Everywhere I went I was a guest, and there’s a big difference between being an immigrant and a guest. It was a different time, pre-internet and mobile phones. Information about the outside world was harder to come by. Thinking behind the Iron Curtain was completely prehistoric. The government considered every alternative point of view, every capitalist product, to be dangerous."

Despite the cultural blackout, Goranov managed to access the singers who became his biggest influences: George Benson, Stevie Wonder and Tom Jones as well as – of course – Elvis Presley and the Beatles. "After the Woodstock Festival in 1969 I sung in a children’s choir that travelled to Belgium. While I was over there I bought three discs.

The first was Jimi Hendrix’s greatest hits, the second was by Joe Cocker and the third was by Ella Fitzgerald. Even jazz was viewed as capitalistic and subversive," he says with a laugh.

Although the Bulgarian public may assume that Goranov suddenly moved over to opera, he says his dream was always to be a classical singer. "I started performing in a choir aged nine, singing Beethoven and Mozart and then later as a soldier in an army choir."

Some of Goranov’s most notable performances were as Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly and Macduff in Macbeth. He has also appeared in La Traviata, Aida, Tosca and Otello, among others, and performed as a soloist at Plovdiv Opera House. His operatic heroes are Franco Corelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Carreras. He thinks Bulgaria is producing a great deal of homegrown talent. "The Bulgarian vocal school is one of the best in the world," he says. 

‘A fortunate life’
Goranov describes his career as a professional singer as "a fortunate life". He has a 19-year-old daughter who has been studying in Vienna who, he tells me proudly, speaks six languages. "She’s now ready for the world," he says. He believes that one of a father’s main tasks, apart from securing gainful employment and ‘building’ a home, is to educate one’s child to the utmost. Would he want her to become a singer or actress?

"Not necessarily. She plays the piano and guitar and has a great ear for music. She’d love to be a DJ," he says.

Goranov has strong ideas on how to put the country back on the right track. He even has an original take on what he sees as Bulgarian recalcitrance when it comes to work.
"It’s going to take 40 years for people to truly overcome the old thinking - waiting for the state to tell them what to do. Many people in Bulgaria don’t really want to work hard because they are ‘free’" By this Goranov means they own their home outright and a car and have no lending problems with financial institutions.

"In a normal Western society everything is on lease – people are mortgaged up to the hilt. If you don’t work then, after two months or so, the bank will pull the plug on you and you’d end up on the street. Here people don’t have that problem. If they owe some money they may just sell something."

Despite the diatribe, he points out that he’s no workaholic himself. He also claims that the vagaries of the current economic crisis affect him too. "During a crisis people may go to cafes and restaurants but they’re not so inclined to spend money on concerts," he says. "At the moment I’d actually prefer to do a concert for free rather than stay at home and wait for someone to call me."

With a Bulgarian-Austrian Vienna Ball planned for January, followed by another US tour with his company of strolling players, there seems little chance of Goranov ever sitting idle for long.