FAUST

19.00
Opera Stage
Stara Zagora State Opera
Premiere
FAUST /opera with puppets/
Opera in five acts by Charles Gounod
Libretto Jules Barbie and Michel Carre
Conductor Ivaylo Krinchev
Director Ognyan Draganov
Assistant-Conductors Viktor Krumov Pierre Walter
Director of Puppets Tsveti Penyashki
Scenography and Costumes Denis Ivanov
Puppet Scenography Vasil Rokomanov and Silva Bachvarova
Choreography Angelina Gavrilova
Chief Choirmaster Mladen Stanev
Language training, translation and subtitles Snezhina Zdravkova

Doctor Faust – Ivaylo Mihaylov
Old Faust – Nikolay Motsov
Mephistopheles – Marius Bolos
Valentine – Yosif Slavov
Margarita – Besa Llugiqi
Siebel – Dimitar Arnaudov
Marta – Dobrinka Koynova-Brigman
Wagner – Yossif Slavov
Choir, Ballet and Orchestra of the Stara Zagora State Opera
Actors from the State Puppet Theater – Stara Zagora
Proto-Bulgarian Survival School Baga-Tur
Children’s and Adolescents’ Studio for Opera and Ballet of the Stara Zagora State Opera

The staging solution follows the powerful tradition of Classicism and Romanticism adding to it contemporary elements. The eternal themes of temptation, vanity and personal choice are interpreted. The questions about to what extent Man, as God’s creature has power over reality and can he exercise it in the most correct way? The world is full of numerous deformations. People in their thoughts and actions often make mistakes in their judgment of Good and Evil. This does not allow them to live in harmony. Evil takes a huge space, which spreads immediately before the threshold of the Divine.

The action takes place in a large courtroom where verdicts are pronounced. The conjured by Mephistopheles country is populated by critics, ready to ridicule each thought of the Elated. They are trying to obsess the life of Faust as well. In the Temple of Themis, he realizes his love for Margarite. The deformed reality places different obstacles before Faust. The clash between Good and Evil is embodied by the puppets, who carry in themselves their images in their purest form. When Margarite celebrates her love for Faust, the puppets blossom and swim out, similar to her beautiful feeling. With Faust the puppets express contrary suggestions, as an illustration of his lust and unrealistic expectations from the world, characteristic of a 75-year-old man.
A basic role in the production has the ballet. The temperamental dance in the Walpurgis Night gives an impressive plastic image of the two essences in life – Good and Evil. At the final, Faust returns to the beginning – in his study, among his books. He gets out of an intrusive dream and realizes that what he has been through has protected him against the desires and the compromises of his youth – wealth, love, war, material richness…

The message of the spectacle is that every person in their existence is forced to find the place of basic moral and way-of-life values and overcome the distorted understanding of the world, which the tumultuous life offers him.

The topicality of the production springs from the modern decision about the scenography and costumes – with clear forms and adaptation of the aesthetics of the fantasy genre and the visual components, characteristic of the computer games. With these means of expression is sought a more immediate effect and active attitude to the young audience.
Performed in French with titles in Bulgarian
Entrance: 25, 30, 35 and 40 leva

In the interval
My PUPPET – MY FAIRY-TALE WORLD
Exposition of exhibits – puppets, provided by the audience

The impressive new production of the opera Faust, in which on the stage again opera singers and puppets will show their art in a magic duet, is the second joint project of the Stara Zagora Opera and the State Puppet Theater – Stara Zagora and a romantic occasion for the formation of the puppet exhibition.
Each spectator, cherishing a dear memory from his childhood and wishing to exhibit his favorite puppet/puppets in the lobby of the Stara Zagora Opera, will be a special participant in the formation of the collection.

Puppets keep and tell stories, which we expect you to share with us!

Puppets are accepted at the Ticket Center till 11 November including a label with the name of the owner and a telephone for contact. The exhibition will be accessible throughout the whole festival from 17 November to 2 December and after its closing the spectators will receive back their puppet exhibits.
For additional information Ulyana Kyoseva – tel. 0885878630