The book "My Wagner" was written by itself. This declared in Ruse its author Acad. Plamen Kartaloff, Director of the Sofia Opera and Ballet.

"My Wagner" was presented this evening in the Dohodno Zdanie in the riverboat city. In the book Acad. Kartaloff shares his gained experience in the realization of the tetralogy "Der Ring des Nibelungen" ("Das Rheingold", "Die Walküre", "Siegfried", "Götterdämmerung"), followed by "Tristan und Isolde" and "Parsifal".

"This book was written by itself. The whole experience during seven years of creation of a new repertoire for the opera and 10 years of supporting this repertoire with the same artists is an adventure for itself. For this reason, I called it "A chronicle of an adventure". And "My Wagner" is because many people were saying: "It’s enough with your Wagner, only Wagner, it will spoil the voices of the singers". I said to myself, well, if it is yours, let it be "My Wagner", explained Acad. Kartaloff.

He reminded that Sofia Opera and Ballet had performances in Ljubljana, in Minsk, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

"Most important for me is the verification before German audience, which was international. For two weeks we presented the whole "Der Ring des Nibelungen" with Bulgarian singers", said Kartaloff.

He reminded that for seven years were presented six Wagner productions in Bulgaria.

"This was a real audacity by itself because it happened only with Bulgarian opera artists. A greater challenge than this one cannot dream about – Wagner with Bulgarian singers", said Acad. Kartaloff.

After his words, without the Sofia Opera and all of its teams this had no chance to be realized.

"I don’t imagine at another place this energy to be gathered in one whole. I would like to emphasize that everybody voluntarily included themselves in this gigantic project. No one was forced or compelled to enter the complicated tasks of Wagner’s dramaturgy. This is really a victory for Sofia Opera itself", said Acad. Kartaloff.

The Director of the Publishing house “Zahari Stoyanov” Ivan Granitski said that the book is too big – more than 1000 pages. In it Acad. Kartaloff immerses himself in Wagner’s artistic work and meditates.

About the book speaks the well-known German music critic Klaus Billand.
"The book describes Acad. Plamen Kartaloff’s work during seven years. It describes his philosophy by the staging of the tetralogy "Der Ring des Nibelungen", of "Tristan und Isolde" and "Parsifal". The description of the work is the one part, and the other part are photos, spectators’ opinions, opinions of lovers of Wagner from different parts of the world", explained Billand.

The presentation of the book was preceded by an exposition of photos by the photographer Evgeni Stanimirov from Ruse. They have imprinted moments from the productions of Wagner’s works of the Sofia Opera.

"We saw in him this fire in the eyes – not only because he is from Ruse, a city with great opera tradition, but also because his enthusiasm to imprint in the memory of these titles a photo archive. This way we gave him access to our performances", explained Acad. Kartaloff.