Yesterday night the “Ring of the Nibelung” started once more in the laudable production of General Director of the Sofia Opera and Ballet, Acad. Plamen Kartaloff.

Even some five years after its first night, this “Vorabend”, as the first of the four music dramas was called by Richard Wagner, demonstrated an enormous freshness and vividness. It appears that the Bulgarian cast has found its way very much into what Wagner understood by doing opera by the so called “Gesamtkunstwerk”, the total work of art.

This “Rhinegold” showed again the positive effects achieved by Kartaloff by conceiving his “Ring” production on the basis of a so called story board whereby he develops the plot from the music score bar to bar. This yields very impressive effects in terms of great harmony between the action on stage and the orchestra pit under the experienced hand of Maestro Erich Waechter. Personnel directing comes first and lets characters developed at ease.

Even at the first or so round of a complete “Ring” cycle, the international Wagner friends have not stopped from a pilgrimage to Sofia. Thus, there were significant delegations from the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, the USA, New Zealand, Austria, Germany and Russia. Even a visitor from Hawaii was seen as well as opera lovers from Sweden and Italy. Thus, the “Ring” in Sofia is once more an international – no, better, a global event. Everybody is looking forward to “The Valkyrie” tonight.

Photos Svetoslav Nikolov