The world-known director and stage designer – with the first opera premiere for season 2014/2015

Performers, chorus and ballet, designers, technical services and workshops are in preparation for the next arrival at Sofia Opera and Ballet in the end of November of the renowned all over the world director and stage designer Hugo de Ana. This time he is coming in our country as director, set and costume designer for the premiere of Camille Saint-Saëns’ classical opera “Samson et Dalila”. De Ana opened triumphantly the last season of Sofia Opera and Ballet with a production of Verdi’s “Aida” to be remembered.

The famous with his spectacular sets and the specific way he uses the lights Argentine started still in June his work on the production, the premiere of which will be on 11 December. Seven in total will be the spectacles of “Samson et Dalila” till 21 December – the last date on which will be performed Saint-Saëns’ work of art till the end of the season on Sofia stage. The wonderful balance among the guest-performing stars – the famous Nadia Krasteva, Endrik Wottrich, Peter Svensson, Stanislav Trifonov and the leading soloists of Sofia Opera and Ballet Daniela Dyakova and Tsveta Sarambelieva, Kostadin Andreev, Biser Georgiev, Svilen Nikolov, Angel Hristov, Svetozar Rangelov and Veselin Mihaylov predetermines the enormous interest in the newest production of our first theatre. De Ana this time counts also on his team with assistant Filippo Tonon, choreographer Leda Loiodice, artistic lights Vinicio Cheli. Set designer multimedia is the known from “Der Ring des Nibelungen” and “La Cenerentola” Georgi Hristov. Conductor of the production is Erich Wächter.

Hugo de Ana arrives in Sofia after a year of exceptionally successful productions of “Simon Boccanegra” in Parma, “Ernani” at Opera di Roma, “La traviata” in Maribor, “Tosca” in Bassano del Grappa, Padua, Bergamo and Savona, “Il trovatore” at La Scala and in Beijing, “Die lustige Witwe” in Turin, Rovigo, Padua and Genoa. He arrives in Sofia from his native city Buenos Aires, where at Teatro Colón is the premiere of his “Madama Butterfly”.

Hugo de Ana graduated the Ernesto de la Corcova Arts School in Buenos Aires as professor in visual arts and custom design for TV and cinema.  Right after graduation, he lectured at the Universidad de la Plata. His career started as Technical Director and Executive Producer at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, where he staged operas such as “Turandot”, “Werther”, “Don Carlo”, “Cavalleria Rusticana”, “Pagliacci”, “Medea” and “The Rake’s Progress”. Some of these titles were debut ones for the paving her way in these years on the world stages Ghena Dimitrova. 

Later he moved to Santiago de Chile, where he was producer of “Roméo et Juliette”, “Lucrezia Borgia”, “Don Carlo” and “Les contes d'Hoffmann”. For three consecutive years he received the critics' award for best director. He started his collaboration with Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid and Liceu Opera Theatre in Barcelona, where he signed works like “Armida”, “Andrea Chénier”, “Die Walküre”, “La Bohème”, “Ermione” and “Otello”.

Hugo de Ana made his Italian debut in 1990, staging “Mosè in Egitto” in Bologna. Since that moment he started collaborating with the most important Italian theatres: Teatro La Scala in Milan (“Lucrezia Borgia”, “Samson et Dalila”, “La forza del destino” and “Il trovatore”), Teatro Regio in Turin (“Manon Lescaut”), Teatro San Carlo in Naples (“Mosè in Egitto”), Teatro dell’Opera in Rome (“Ermione”, “Werther”, “Marie Victoire” and “La fiamma”, “Il barbiere di Siviglia”, “Iris"”), Arena di Verona (“Nabucco”, “Les contes d’Hoffman”), Rossini Opera Festival (“Semiramide”), Teatro la Fenice in Venice (“Carmen”), as well as the theatres of Genoa, Catania and Parma.

He staged “La Sonnambula” at Santander’s International Festival during summer 2007. 
He worked also with Deutsche Oper Berlin (“Don Carlo”), Covent Garden in London (“Lucrezia Borgia”, “Don Carlo”), Seville Opera House (“Aida”), Tel Aviv Opera house (“Tosca”). He signed also, amongst the others, productions as: “Le cid” in Seville and Washington, “Simon Boccanegra” in Parma, “Turandot”, “L´elisir d´amore” and “Norma” in Tokyo. Hugo de Ana has recently directed Gounod’s “Faust” at Teatro Regio in Parma and completed the Faust opera cycle.  He gained great success directing “Senso” for the opening of season 2011 at Teatro Massimo in Palermo.

He is bearer of the Abbiati Prize for his stage direction of “Iris”, “Turandot” and “Les contes d’Hoffman” in 1997. For the production of “Don Carlo” at Teatro Real in Madrid in 2001 he was distinguished for best stage direction, set design and costume designs. In 2002 he won the Opera Award for “La forza del destino” and two years later for Gounod’s “Faust”.