She started singing in the school choir and her powerful voice led to her being offered a place at the Sofia Conservatory studying under Christo Brambarov between 1959 and 1964.

Her breakthrough came in 1967 as Abigaille in a Bulgarian National Opera production of Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco after a couple of other sopranos dropped out.

Dimitrova won the Sofia International Singing Competition in 1970, the prize including a course of study at La Scala's Scuola di Perfezionamento.

Her Turandot is also preserved in a video of the Arena di Verona production from 1983, with Nicola Martinucci and Cecilia Gasdia.

She sang at the Barbican Arts Centre in Ponchielli's La Gioconda in 1983 before making her Covent Garden debut in the same year.