Acad. Plamen Kartaloff: “We cultivatе a new generation of opera audience”
The beginning of the programme for children “We are going to the opera and ballet from 3 to 14”, created after the idea of the Director of the Opera Plamen Kartaloff, started in February 2008. The care of our first opera theatre is to cultivate and educate a future opera audience. Thе start was with the adaptation of “Die Zauberflöte”, “Hänsel und Gretel” and “Petya and the Wolf”.
The curtain was opened on 06.02.2008 and the miracles don’t stop even to this day.
On the chamber stage were realized 32 premieres of operas, ballets and musicals for children and adaptations of big opera titles. Among them are: “The Golden Apple”, “Winnie-the-Pooh”, “The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids”, “Town Musicians of Bremen”, “The Three Piggies”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Cinderella”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Little Ida’s Flowers”, “La fille mal guardée”, “Cunning Little Vixen”, “Das Rheingold for children”, “Il barbiere di Siviglia for children”, “L’enfant et les sortilèges”, “The Night Before Christmas”, “Amahl and the Night Visitors”, “Aladino e la lampada magica”, “Der Schulmeister”, “A Story with Ducks, Mecho and Lisa” and others.
In the present season 2018-2019 are upcoming two premieres – the family opera “Katze Ivanka” to the music of Massimiliano Matesic and the interactive spectacle – “Musical Alphabet” – music by Luisa Stanoeva. With them the titles become 34.
Till now were performed 1388 spectacles for children and they were visited by 134 226 spectators.
The chamber stage offers the possibility to the children to communicate with the soloists, to express their sympathy to their favourite characters and to become active participant in the theatre action. After the spectacle, every child has the opportunity to keep its memories, get in touch with the sets, the props, its favourite character and feel itself an artist.
At the end of each season, the programme for children is performed in the open air – in the park of the Military Academy. There get transferred the spectacles, which allow to be performed in natural sets. Then the children’s audience becomes still more direct participant in the theatre action itself.
Still stronger impressions and emotions provoked the guest-performance in Vidin – at the Baba Vida Fortress with “Shegobishko on the Wonder Island”.
The programme for children was guest also out of Sofia. Unforgettable remain the meetings with the audience in Velingrad, Pravets, Niš, Veliko Tarnovo.
With the programme for children were celebrated also birthdays. Unforgettable are the moments and the emotions with the favourite characters.
Photo: Sofia Opera The theatre’s cares about the most little don’t cease. In 2017, with own financial means was made a special Armani equipment, in order to provide comfort for our little spectators.
After Academician Plamen Kartaloff’s idea, in 2014 started a second branch of the programme for children. It is directed towards still younger audience – at the age of 0 to 3.
In 2019, the Concerts for Babies made 5 years, which till this moment are at the number of 464 and were visited by 19 767 children at the age of 0 to 3 and their parents – future admirers of the opera. In a specially equipped hall the kids make their first meetings with fragments from classical operas, favourite hit children’s songs, they get acquainted with a small part of the musical instruments.
https://impressio.dir.bg/stsena/pet-godini-kontserti-za-bebotsi-v-sofiyskata-opera