Today the Bulgarian ballet celebrates its anniversary! On 22 February 1928, on the stage of the Sofia National Opera, for the first time in Bulgaria was staged a standalone ballet spectacle – “Coppélia, or The Girl with the Enamel Eyes”. The founder of the Bulgarian ballet school – Anastas Petrov, principal ballet master of many years at that time at the Sofia National Opera, staged the ballet “Coppélia”, and at the premiere he performed the role of Franz, and Nadya Vinarova performed the double role of Swanhilda and Coppélia. Conductor was Tsanko Tsankov, the set design was made by Alexander Milenkov.

The ballet “Coppélia” has a key significance for the history of the world ballet too. When the eminent fiddler, librettist and dancer Arthur Saint-Léon proposed to Léo Delibes to compose the music of “Coppélia, or The Girl with the Enamel Eyes”, Delibes accepted and for several months he completed the scores. With the choreography engaged himself Saint-Léon. The premiere was on 25 May 1870, at Grande Opéra, Paris, and at it was present Napoleon III.

The creation of “Coppélia” has an enormous significance for the development of ballet art as a standalone music and stage genre. The work exerted influence on a series of composers, one of who was Josef Bayer, who created the waltz ballet “Die Puppenfee” (“The Fairy Doll”). Step by step, the doll ballet turned even into a genre, at that a top achievement in this direction is “The Nutcracker” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

Снимка: Coppélia – Léo Delibes – 2014 Sofia Opera and Ballet