THE FESTIVAL OF THE OPERA AND BALLET ARTS – WITH PREMIERE TITLES AND A GLANCE TO THE TRADITIONS
“Die Walküre” of the Sofia Opera and Ballet
“Eugene Onegin” and “Der fliegende Holländer” with premieres at the Festivals. For the first time “Die Walküre” of the Sofia Opera and Ballet outside the capital. Theater music by Pancho Vladigerov. The legendary Ukrainian Radu Poklitaru with the Ballet of the Plovdiv State Opera. Masterclasses by Veselina Kazarova and Kaludi Kaludov. Exhibitions, celebrations and video-projections.
From 23 November to 9 December Stara Zagora is the capital of the opera and ballet. The Festival is opened with two premiere spectacles by the hosts with the opera “Eugene Onegin” by P. I. Tchaikovsky on 23rd and 24th November. In 2023 the world marks the 200th anniversary of the creation of one of the greatest literary works in the world – the novel in lyrics “Eugene Onegin” by A. S. Pushkin. The director Slavcho Nikolov conveys contemporary suggestions of the eternal themes of love, friendship, faithfulness, involved in the genius poems by Pushkin and the music by Tchaikovsky.
25 November is dedicated to the performing art of the great baritone Stoyan Popov and his 90th anniversary. The Burgas State Opera will present a documentary exhibition, dedicated to his performing creative work. Its author is the daughter of Stoyan Popov and a long-time editor in the Bulgarian National Radio. Together with the photos will be shown videos from the Golden Fund of the Bulgarian National Television and a jubilee album.
The Romantic opera “Der fliegende Holländer” by Richard Wagner will be presented on 26 November in the Festival program immediately after its premiere in Varna. The production of Vera Nemirova is an adaptation of the production in 2017 in the Opera Theater in Magdeburg, Germany. “The Hollander is looking for a haven while Senta sees him as a person who can help her to go out of her circle”, shares Vera Nemirova. Thus interpreted, the content of the opera by Wagner corresponds with today’s problems about love, freedom and alienation.
Videos of the production of Vera Nemirova in Magdeburg.
On 27th November the Ensemble “Sinfonietta” with the special participation of the bass Ivaylo Dzhurov, will present compositions by Pancho Vladigerov for the theater productions by the great director of Germany and Austria, Max Reinhardt, whose 150th anniversary is in 2013. During the concert the conductor Milko Kolarov, a student of Vladigerov, will tell about his meetings and numerous lessons that he learnt from him. Before the event, in the lobby of the Opera at 17.30, the House-Museum “Pancho Vladigerov” will present the film “Rhapsody Vladigerov”, filmed in the theaters, in which during the 20s of the last century the two creators created seminal productions for the European theater.
On 29 November is the concert by the participants in the Masterclasses of Veselina Kazarova and Kaludi Kaludov. The two great Bulgarian performers share common ideas of the nurturing of important skills and the necessary qualities for the successful realization of the young performers. Before that, from 16 to 29 November the Halll of the Regional Library “Zahariy Knyazheski” will be transformed in a unique laboratory, where will be mastered the subtle details of the opera performing mastery.
On 30th November is the Ballet Evening with the Plovdiv Opera. The choreographer Radu Poklitaru, as a founder and chief ballet master of the Academic Theater for Modern Ballet in Kiev, has remarkable ballet productions on world stages. “The Long Christmas Dinner” is a ballet-reflection about the transitory nature of life. The production was inspired by the winner of a Pulitzer American playwright Thornton Wilder. “Women in D Minor” is a spectacle, saturated with admiration to the genius of J. S. Bach.
A Film about the Spectacle of the Bulgarian National Television
2nd December is a day of creative speculation of the soprano Mariya Klincheva, on the occasion of her 80th anniversary, who connected durably her life and artistic biography with the first outside the capital opera theater. In the span of more than three decades Mariya Krincheva personifies dozens of roles, forms the image of the cultural life in Stara Zagora. She guest-performs also in many other countries in the world. The opera Prima will be presented by Miglena Stoycheva, together with videos from the Golden Fund of the Bulgarian National Fund of the Bulgarian National Television.
On 5th December, 50 years after the first legendary production in its history, the Ruse State Opera will again present “The Year 893” by Parashkev Hadzhiev, dedicated to the 1130th anniversary of the acceptance of Christianity by the Bulgarian people. The director Plamen Beykov uses modern expressive means and synthesized emotional presence, which carries direct suggestions and provokes the imagination and the fantasy of the audience.
Plamen Beykov about the production on the Bulgarian National Television
In the last years the Sofia Opera and Ballet has found numerous admirers with the successful of fulfilment of a demanding task for the greatest world theaters with the tetralogy “Des Ring des Nibelungen” by Richard Wagner in the director’s version of Plamen Kartalov. The excited music critics defined “Die Walküre” as a pearl in the necklace of the monumental work. The spectacle in Stara Zagora on 9th December, will be the final of the Festival and will start the beginning of the celebrations dedicated to the 150th anniversary, dedicated to the creation of the eminent opera cycle, which left a visible mark on the world culture.
Among the accompanying events, on the eve of the Festival, 20 November, Veselina Kazarova and Kaludi Kaludov, will present the participants in their vocal courses. There will also be presented the film “The Human Voice” to the storyline by Miglena Stoycheva, director Nikolay Vasilev and cameraman Nedyalko Danov. The work is dedicated to the most delicate and perfect musical instrument – the one which man carries inside himself. The story about the voice as a unique gift is told through the destinies and memories of the three characters in the film – the folklore singer Verka Siderova, the opera Prima Darina Takova and the voice-specialist Dr. Dimitar Kehayov.
An exhibition of paintings, entitled “Color Miniatures”, of the concert master of the State Opera, Paulina Zaharieva, continues the tradition of the Festival presenting established musicians in an unknown light for the general audience. In the last two years their own exhibitions presented the tenor Kaludi Kaludov and the violinist Micho Dimitrov.
The Festival of the Opera and Ballet Arts was founded in 1967 and is organized by the State Opera with the support of the Stara Zagora Municipality. The fifty-third edition of the Festival is realized with the assistance of the National Fund “Culture” – Program of Restoration of the State, Regional and Municipal Cultural Institutions, and Program “Mobility”.
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