Kurt Rydl – the voice of the largest opera stages, including the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, the La Scala di Milano, the Paris Opera, Covent Garden, arrives in Bulgaria at the special invitation of Academician Plamen Kartaloff to take part in the new project of the Sofia Opera – "Der fliegende Holländer" by Richard Wagner.
The great bass will hold a master class on 10 May with the soloists from the cast of the upcoming premiere, which will open the summer festival "Muses of Water" on Lake Pancharevo on 8 July. This is a prolongation of the good tradition of continuity that accompanied a number of the theatre’s productions.
In recent years, projects have been carried out with some of the greatest stars on the world opera stage, such as Dolora Zajick, who after her work at the Sofia Opera noted: “I am amazed at how many dramatic voices you have in Bulgaria. There is something special in the Bulgarian voices.” The famous pedagogue Larisa Gergieva trained several ensembles for the opera "Eugene Onegin".
The joint work of our opera artists with Kammersängerin Anna Tomowa-Sintow is also exceptionally valuable and fruitful. She accompanied the preparation of "Salome", "Don Giovanni", as well as the preparation of the singers for the most recent premiere of the theatrе – "Ariadne auf Naxos".
Kurt Rydl has more than 100 roles from German, English, Italian, French, Russian and Czech operas, and his concert programs range from Mozart to Penderecki and from Beethoven to Mahler. He has participated in festivals in Bayreuth, Bregenz, Edinburgh, Munich, Salzburg, Verona. Since 1999, he has been an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera with the title "Kammersänger". He was also nominated for a Grammy Award in 1987. The Bulgarian audience remembers his famous appearance as Rocco in the production of "Fidelio" at the Sofia Opera in 2013. A role that the bass has performed for years in productions of Lorin Maazel and Riccardo Muti at La Scala di Milano, of Lorin Maazel in Paris and Salzburg, and with Leonard Bernstein in New York, Washington and London
And just after the spectacular international success of "Der Ring des Nibelungen", "Tristan und Isolde" and "Parsifal", credit for the preparation of which of Bulgarian Wagner singers a huge participation has the world-famous Wagnerian performer and music pedagogue Richard Trimborn, now Sofia Opera offers its audience the romantic opera "Der fliegende Holländer". It is one of the top achievements of German romantic opera, and Kurt Rydl is one of the greatest performers in the dozens of productions in which he participated.