Although the finale of the opera “Il trovatore” is tragical – Leonora swallows poison, and Count di Luna murders Manrico before understanding that he was his brother, this opera doesn’t go out of the repertoire of the world opera stages. Verdi’s music remains for a long time to sound in the spectator’s consciousness with its typical fascinating melodies and energic chorus scenes, calling to revolutionary dispositions. For the fame of “Il trovatore” contributes also the exotic romance, with which is depicted the life in the gypsies’ camp. The opera was performed for the first time on 19 January 1853 at Teatro Apollo in Rome. For the first time in Bulgaria it was produced in 1914 by the Opera Fellowship with conductor Todor Hadzhiev and stage director K. Mihaylov-Stoyan.

On 26 February in “Il trovatore” in the role of Manrico guest will be the famous tenor Kamen Chanev, known on many opera stages. He was born in Sliven. He graduated from the French Language School in his native city, and then from the Conservatoire in Sofia. He specialized in Rome at the Boris Christoff’s Academy. In 1992, he started working at the Sofia Opera. After five seasons, he moved to Prague, where he was singing for two years before changing to freelance singer.

He has worked with Alexandrina Miltcheva, Ghena Dimitrova, Leone Magiera (Luciano Pavarotti’s pianist). He is prize-winner of the Jussi Bjoerling Competition, Sweden. He appears in the basic tenor repertoire – besides in Bulgaria also on the big opera stages in Europe, Asia and the USA. He has prestigious engagements on the stages of the Wiener Staatsoper (in the roles of Des Grieux from “Manon Lescaut” and Pinkerton from “Madama Butterfly”) and Arena di Verona (Calaf from “Turandot”).

The singer’s repertoire is varied and includes over 30 main roles (“Aida”, “Don Carlos”, “La Traviata”, “Rigoletto”, “Cavalleria rusticana”, “I Pagliacci”, “Il trovatore”, “Madama Butterfly”, “Tosca”, “Rigoletto”, “Carmen”), as well as the tenor parts from the cantata-oratorio works Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Mozart’s, Verdi’s and Dvořák’s Requiem, Rossini’s “Stabat Mater”, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8.

Chanev is one of the singers, who continue to confirm the glory of the opera talent of the Bulgarians. Kamen works in Vienna, but he is sought-after by the greatest opera stages. The tenor is grateful to the Sofia Opera and Ballet, from the stage of which started his career.

On 28 February in “Il trovatore” in the role of Count di Luna guest will be the celebrated baritone Kiril Manolov. He was born in Sofia in 1976, where he stu­died opera sin­ging at the Natio­nal Aca­demy of Music. He is prize-winner from different sin­ging com­pe­ti­tions in Bul­ga­ria, as well as in Vienna, War­saw, Bar­ce­lona and Bre­scia. He made his debut at the Natio­nal Aca­demy of Music in Sofia as Don Gio­vanni (Don Gio­vanni).

His reper­toire inclu­des the roles of Nabucco (“Nabucco”), Simon Boc­ca­ne­gra (“Simon Boc­ca­ne­gra”), Amo­na­sro (“Aida”), Mar­cello (“La bohème”), Enrico (“Lucia di Lam­mer­moor”), Ger­mont (“La tra­viata”), Renato (“Un ballo in Maschera”), Figaro (“Il bar­biere di Sivi­glia”), Dan­dini (“La cene­ren­tola”), Fal­staff (“Fal­staff”), Escamillo (“Carmen”), Carlo Gérard (“Andrea Chénier”), etc.

In 2010, he performed Fal­staff (Fal­staff) in a new pro­duc­tion at the Opera House of Wie­sba­den and the same year he made his debut at the Ham­burg State Opera as Fal­staff.

In the next years, he was heard as Fal­staff (“Fal­staff”), Mil­ler (“Luisa Mil­ler”), Figaro “Il bar­biere di Sivi­glia”, Simon Boc­ca­ne­gra (“Simon Boc­ca­ne­gra”), Don Pasquale (“Don Pasquale”) and Amonasro (“Aida”) in Wie­sba­den, Count di Luna (“Il trovatore”) at the Cologne Opera, Fal­staff (“Fal­staff”) in Hanover, Mil­ler (“Luisa Mil­ler”) in Essen, Fal­staff (“Fal­staff”) in Wuppertal, Dulcamara (“L’elisir d’amore”) in Zagreb, Amonasro (“Aida”) in Nurn­berg, Don Pasquale (“Don Pasquale”) in Darm­stadt and Fal­staff (“Fal­staff”) in Budapest, Ravenna and Lucca.

Manolov sang Don Carlo di Vargas (“La forza del destino”) in Parma, Ford (“Falstaff”) in Piacenza, Amonasro (“Aida”) at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Dulcamara (“L’elisir d’amore”) at Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Sharpless (“Madama Butterfly”) in Las Palmas, Nabucco (“Nabucco”) in Trieste, Fal­staff (“Fal­staff”) at Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Reggio Emilia, Ferrara, Savona and Trieste.

He sang with great success in “Falstaff”’s production with Maestro Riccardo Muti at the Ravenna Festival and in Oviedo in July 2015. The Italian critics declared him for the best Falstaff in the world.

In the different seasons Manolov sang in Puccini’s “Il trittico” at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Dulcamara (“L’elisir d’amore”) in Seville, Fal­staff (“Fal­staff”) with Maestro Muti at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Nabucco (“Nabucco”) at the Caracalla Summer Festival, Amonasro (“Aida”) in Montreal, etc.

Characters and performers. Production team:  

Count di Luna: Veselin Mihaylov, Jeonghyeok  Seo, Kiril Manolov, Nikola Miajlović
Leonora: Gabriela Georgieva, Marily Santoro, Radostina Nikolaeva
Azucena: Ana Victória Pitts, Gergana Rusekova, Ivanka Ninova
Manrico: Davide Riu, Daniel Damyanov, Kamen Chanev, Kostadin Andreev
Ferrando: Angel Hristov, Kostadin Mechkov, Svetozar Rangelov
Ines: Bayasgalan Dashnyam, Irina Stoyanova, Silvana Pravcheva
Ruiz: Angel Antonov, Krasimir Dinev
An old gypsy: Anton Radev, Iliya Iliev

Chorus, orchestra and ballet of the Sofia Opera

Conductor: Laurent Campellone
Direction, Set Design and Artistic Lighting: Filippo Tonon
Costume Design: Cristina Aceti
Choreography: Riolina Topalova
Fencing Master: Aleksandar Kalinov
Chorus Master: Violeta Dimitrova
Assistant Director: Vera Beleva
Concertmasters: Maria Evstatieva, Lyudmil Nenchev
Stage Managers: Stefka Georgieva, Suzana Shomova
Répétiteurs: Yolanta Smolyanova, Milen Stanev, Pelagia Cherneva, Yuriy Ilinov, Svetlana Ananievska