Sofia Opera presents not shown until now photos of the world bass

Exhibition of photographs and documents, dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of the famous Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff, will be opened on 9 April at 12.00 h in the small garden in front of “Kristal” in the capital. Sofia Opera and Ballet is organizer of the event, supported by the Ministry of Culture and included in the programme of the celebrations, dedicated to the jubilee of the great artist.

The exhibition consists of portraits, photographs from the different years and roles on stages all over the world, on which Boris Christoff had sung. Not shown until now pictures from the early years of the renowned performer are completed by facsimiles of letters and documents. Among them are the letter with which he was informed about the scholarship for education in Italy from 1942, the certificate of baptism of the singer, his student’s record book.

Not so well-known photographs from the participations of the chorus of Sofia Opera and Ballet in the recording of “Boris Godunov” in Paris in 1962 and from the guest-performance of the chorus and the soloists of the theatre with Boris Christoff in the main role in Mussorgsky’s work in Naples in 1970 are completed by the letter of thanks to the performer from the conductor Asen Naydenov on this occasion. The photos are from the personal archive of Vanya Pravchanska-Ivanova – a personal friend of the singer and author of one of the books about him.

Presented will be the programme which Sofia Opera and Ballet is dedicating to Boris Christoff’s jubilee with pictures from the spectacles on this occasion. Among them stand out the forthcoming on 27, 28 and 29 June premiere of “Boris Godunov” in front of the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the second performance of Wagner’s tetralogy “Der Ring des Nibelungen” from 23 to 29 July with the world-known conductor Kazushi Ono. Plamen Kartaloff is director of both productions.

The exhibition dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of Boris Christoff is among the events in support of the candidature of Sofia and the Southwest region for Europe’s cultural capital in 2019.