The summer festival Opera in the Park
Best-loved opera and ballet classics of opera be seen at a unique summer festival in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia. What was the unique thing about it – this was first and foremost the unconventional open-air venue – right in the heart of one of the best green parks in the Bulgarian capital, the park of the National Military Academy. The festival started in mid-June and lasted for a month, featuring a number of the most favorite opera and ballet masterpieces of the Bulgarian audience – Puccini’s Madam Butterfly and Bellini’s Norma, as well as the ballets Giselle with music by Adolphe Adam, Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky and Zorba the Greek by Mikis Theodorakis.
The organizers of the festival were Sofia Municipality and Bulgaria’s Ministries of culture and of defense. And a novelty in the program were the two children’s musicals – Winnie The Pooh and The Little Red Riding Hood that drew plenty of the youngest spectators on weekends to the Military Academy park.
On the festival’s opening night, the audience had the pleasure to see a production of the world-famous Madam Butterfly of Giacomo Puccini, starring young soprano Nelya Kravchenko in the role of Cio-Cio-San:
“I am a Bessarabian Bulgarian. I started work at the Sofia Opera Theatre after my graduation at the National Music Academy Pancho Vladigerov in Sofia. Then, I left for Graz, Austria, for a specialization. I am happy that I was invited again to sing in Bulgaria’s National Opera. I work with a magnificent team in a friendly atmosphere and I hope the audience will appreciate our performance”, Nelya Kravchenko told Radio Bulgaria.
At the festival Opera in the Park in Sofia, the audience could also listen to another interpretation of the same role – this time by Japanese soprano Mihoko Kinoshita. She has won awards in a number of competitions and has toured Europe, America and Australia. This has been her third time in Bulgaria, performing the part of Cio-Cio-San.
This production of Madam Butterfly was conducted by young Bulgarian conductor Yordan Kamdjalov. He has been an award-winning conductor over the past 10 years. Prominent Bulgarian stage director and head of the National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Sofia, Plamen Kartalov, commented on this: “I always try to invite young artists and conductors to perform in the Sofia Opera Theatre. We invited Yordan Kamdjalov whose first time as conductor with us was immediately after he graduated the Sofia Music Academy. His arrival for the festival was planned long ago. And in June this year, we learned the happy news that he was selected as general music director and chief conductor of the Opera, Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Festival in Heidelberg, Germany”.
Both opera productions performed on the open-air stage of the Opera in the Park festival in Sofia, Bellini’s Norma and Puccini’s Madam Butterfly, featured Bulgarian tenor Rumen Doikov.
“I have a lot of experience in singing on open-air stages. I have sung at such stages in Brazil as well in a festival in the town of Veliko Tarnovo. The performance of opera music right under the sky is a serious test to one’s vocal mastery. It requires additional skills and only very experienced singers can do it well”, Bulgarian tenor Rumen Doikov said.
The festival Opera in the Park also saw the premier of one of the bet-loved bel canto operas in the world – Bellini’s Norma. This opera had not been staged in the National Opera in Sofia for 22 years. The soloists in the production were tenor Rumen Doikov and soprano Radostina Nikolaeva.
The splendid park of Sofia’s Military Academy was also turned into a décor for three ballet productions within the framework of the festival. Especially for the production of Giselle, Bulgarian dancer Vyara Nacheva, who is among the stars on the Berlin ballet stage, arrived in Sofia. She has been in Germany for 18 years now and is prima ballerina of the Berlin Statsopera.
And Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake – the other title in the festival that drew numerous spectators and has been part of the repertoire of the Sofia Ballet theatre for years. The production this time was of famous choreographer Oleg Danovski, with Marta Petkova and Nikola Hadjitanev, winners in international ballet competitions, starring in the main parts.
Text and photo: www.bnr.bg
To see the presentation of the company, please follow the link:
Presentation of Mirela Real Estate