A specialist in roles calling for sound of tremendous power, including Puccini's Turandot and Verdi's Lady Macbeth and Aida, "she will reign as such a unique phenomenon for the next decade," said David DiChiera, director of the Michigan Opera Theater in Detroit, where [Ghena Dimitrova] sang Puccini's ice maiden last week.

Dimitrova, a Bulgarian whose name has spread only slowly in the West and slowest of all in the United States, aspires to the acclaim accorded Birgit Nilsson and Kirsten Flagstad - Dimitrova's honored ancestors.

In 1970, Dimitrova won a national singing competition and got a scholarship to study at La Scala in Milan. She began singing throughout Italy, Spain and South America, appearing with such performers as Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Piero Cappuccilli. In 1978, she appeared at the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow, made her debut at the Vienna State Opera and began to work in Germany as well.