The soprano will take part in “Un ballo in maschera” with the guest-performing Kamen Chanev
For a less than a month, the soloist of the Sofia Opera and Ballet Gabriela Georgieva will present herself in three titles by Borodin, Verdi and Puccini. One year after her triumphal success as Yaroslavna on a Japanese stage, the performer will again incarnate in the personage of this character from “Prince Igor” on 17 March. “The role is quite difficult, Yaroslavna is a very strong woman, shared the singer. – And pure vocally this is a big challenge”, said Georgieva about her personage. She takes part in the cycle of titles, with which the tenor Kamen Chanev is guest-performer at the Sofia Opera and Ballet:
On 4 March the audience was in rapture over the soprano as Tosca in Puccini’s masterpiece. Guest-performer was CARLOS ALMAGUER in the role of Baron Scarpia, and Mario Cavaradossi was Daniel Damyanov.
On 9 March, Gabriela Georgieva will perform Amelia in “Un ballo in maschera” by Verdi with the participation of Kamen Chanev, Carlos Almaguer, Rumyana Petrova, Irina Zhekova and conductor Boris Spasov.
On 17 March, Gabriela Georgieva will be Yaroslavna in “Prince Igor” by Borodin. As Prince Igor her partner will be Biser Georgiev, Vladimir Igorevich will be Hrisimir Damyanov. Prince Galitsky – Aleksandar Nosikov. Khan Konchak – Svetozar Rangelov. Konchakovna – Tsveta Sarambelieva. Conductor is Grigor Palikarov.
Gabriela Georgieva, who has all reasons to consider herself a student of Ghena Dimitrova, saw off the 2014 Year on the stage of the Sofia Opera and Ballet in the New Year Gala Concert with a performance, considered to be a reserved sign of the great opera prima – Lady Macbeth from “Macbeth” by Verdi. But this is not the only title from the heavy dramatic repertoire in the artistic portfolio of the soprano. Abigaille from “Nabucco” is among the characters, which Georgieva sang for the first time at the Sofia Opera, the year was 2006. At the same theatre, she debuted as Turandot in Puccini’s opera in 2009. In the role of La Gioconda by Ponchielli’s opera of the same name, she made her debut in Rijeka in 2006. She sang for the first time on a foreign stage also in “Requiem” by Verdi – one of the parts she prepared, following the instructions of Ghena Dimitrova. Under her vocal and artistic direction, the young then soprano prepared also her first participation as Maddalena in “Andrea Chénier” by Giordano. “I made this part with Ghena. She was exceptionally precise, she showered us with information and advices and sometimes she was angry that we didn’t accept her entirely, the way she was expecting from every one of us”, recollected Gabriela Georgieva.
This happened in 2003, one year after her first role – on the Varna stage, in “Il trovatore” by Verdi. Months later, she was Amelia in “Un ballo in maschera” by Verdi at the Sofia Opera. Then followed “Tosca”, “Aida”, “Don Carlo”. Georgieva took part also in one world premiere – as Anastasia in Alexander Yosifov’s opera “Fate for Two” in 2006. The invitation for a series of foreign stages weren’t late, among which also from the Opera in Zagreb. There Gabriela Georgieva sang in “Un ballo in maschera”, “Il trovatore”, “Nabucco” and debuted in “Suor Angelica” by Puccini in 2008. “This is the role, which for me was emotionally most hard to learn – told the soprano. – At one spectacle, I was singing the famous aria “Senza mamma” and I was crying. After the spectacle in my dressing room came crying colleagues and said that they were not able to stay for the third title of Puccini’s triptych, they were moved to such a degree. Pure emotionally now I have the feeling that I could not sing this role again.”
After almost 13 years career on different stages, in Barcelona, Bern, Madrid, Zurich, Vienna, Bratislava, Caracalla – Rome, Graz, Bordeaux, Paris, Split, Rijeka, theatres in Germany, Cyprus, Poland, Hungary, Gabriela Georgieva shared that for the contemporary artists it is not easy only to make their breakthrough, but also to stay on the opera Olympus. “Today it is very difficult to make a career, because everyone is ready to sing everything, and I don’t like this – said she. – I am not “omnivorous” and I don’t sing everything at any cost.”
Except for the meeting with Ghena Dimitrova, who she worships, Gabriela Georgieva is very thankful to her destiny also for have given her the chance to work with Kaludi Kaludov, as well as to be acquainted with and appreciated by the famous Peter Dvorský in summer 1999. “He held out his hand to me and told me: You are a Verdi soprano. I like you very much and I am inviting you to open my festival the next year. This was an important starting point for my entire later growth as performer.”