The prima Alexandrina Milcheva is a special guest, ambassadors are the soprano Silvana Pravcheva and the prima ballerina Katerina Petrova
Sofia Opera and Ballet will welcome on 15 November from 10.00 to 22.00 h the guests of the second edition of the Theatres Night with a record 16-hours programme, consisting of spectacles for children, opera concert, ballet premiere, open lesson and film show of documentaries. Special guest is the opera prima Alexandrina Milcheva. The start of the initiative was given in 2008 in Croatia, and in the edition of the Theatres Night of this year are included 11 Sofia theatres and participants from another 10 towns in Bulgaria.
Sofia Opera and Ballet will begin its special programme for the night with “Concert for Babies” for the most little and with the opera for children “Hänsel und Gretel” by Engelbert Humperdinck. The official opening of the Theatres Night is at 11.00 h by the Theatre’s Director Acad. Plamen Kartaloff and by the ambassadors of this year, the soprano Silvana Pravcheva and the prima ballerina Katerina Petrova. The first one of them will take part in the concert “Premiere” with fragments from the newest titles in the opera repertoire, and the second one the spectators will have the chance to see in the role of Aurora in the ballet “Sleeping Beauty” by Thaikovsky the same evening.
During the whole day for the most inquisitive there will be special tours “Behind the curtain” of the theatre. They will have the possibility to visit halls for rehearsals and spectacles, dressing rooms for the artists, the stage, boxes and foyers in the emblematic building, designed by the great Bulgarian architect Lazar Parashkevanov. Costumes from the production of “Boris Godunov” by Mussorgsky this summer in front of the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral will be exhibited in the main foyer, and first of everyone else the audience will see the documentary by Miglena Stoycheva and the cameraman Nedyalko Danov “Opera on the square”. The tape reveals curious moments from this unique production of Sofia Opera and Ballet.
With a recording from the spectacle from 1988 of the opera “Adriana Lecouvreur” by Cilea will be marked the upcoming jubilees of both opera primas Alexandrina Milcheva and Raina Kabaivanska. The great mezzo-soprano Milcheva will reveal secrets of opera singing in her unique open lesson for the audience of the Theatres Night. The production of Francesco Cilea’s work of art is with the participation of Rumen Doykov, Petar Petrov, Zdravko Gadzhev, Emil Ugrinov, Petar Bakardzhiev.
The visitors of the Theatres Night at Sofia Opera and Ballet will have the opportunity to see the three documentaries produced in 2014 on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the world bass Boris Christoff. Authors are Georgi Toshev, Nevena Koralova, Petya Tetevenska and Magdalena Manolova. The 125th Anniversary of the great opera singer Hristina Morfova will be honoured with the film show of documentary by the director Petar Bahnev from 1991. The 85th Anniversary of our famous bass Nicolai Ghiaurov will be marked with the documentary by Nevena Koralova from 1999.
Tickets for the Theatres Night at Sofia Opera and Ballet are at the price of BGN 6. As a special bonus for its loyal audience the Opera offers the tickets for the spectacle for children of “Hänsel und Gretel” at 11.00 h and for the premiere of “Sleeping Beauty” at 19.00 h the same evening to be valid also as pass for the Theatres Night. Tickets are sold at the Ticket office of Sofia Opera and Ballet, 1, Vrabcha Str.