“I have always strived Sofia Opera to be in the galaxy of the world opera theatres” – with these words the theatre’s director acad. Plamen Kartaloff opened the press conference on 12.03, in the VIP hall of the Opera, on the occasion of the upcoming premiere of the opera La Cenerentola by Gioachino Rossini.

Maestro Kartaloff explained that at the moment the creative staff of the theatre is working parallel on three big and very difficult projects – the opera Tristan und Isolde, which will be produced in February 2015, the concert on the occasion of the celebration of Boris Christoff’s 100th Anniversary on 18 May and the opera Boris Godunov in front of the St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral on 27, 28 and 29 June 2014.

The opera La Cenerentola is exceptionally difficult for musical and vocal performance, explained the conductor Grigor Palikarov. He added that he was striving to be untraditional and in the recent years he produced the extremely difficult operas Lakmé, Eugene Onegin and Fidelio, and that is why now La Cenerentola is the next challenge for the Maestro. “The most pleasant part of the work is on the spectacle itself, the rehearsals before it require an enormous labour”, added he. An exceptional challenge is to produce this comic opera.

The director of the production Vera Petrova said that in the person of the conductor Grigor Palikarov she had an outstanding partner. The idea of the production is to escape from everyday life, the action takes place in a fantasy time. The work is exceptionally difficult in vocal respect, emphasized Vera Petrova. She raised slightly the curtain of the premiere by revealing that the finale ends with the forgiveness of Cinderella. “The opera La Cenerentola is our sunny island”, finished she.

The set designer Boryana Angelova shared, that the sets are jewellery, and at the end of the production before the spectators will open a garden. Hristiana Mihaleva – costume designer, explained that the characters are thought as porcelain dolls, the costumes are with fairy-tale and haute couture elements.

Special guest at the press conference was the opera singer Reni Penkova, who took part in the previous production of the opera La Cenerentola 46 years ago. She shared that then the decision for the production of this work was taken exceptionally difficult and many repeated auditions were made. “I personally agreed because I was a young singer and had no other choice”, admitted she. “Nobody had heard such a thing before and now I wish success to the colleagues”, finished she.

Every performer told about his/her participation in the production. The interesting about the Bulgarian singers in the project is that they all are debutants in these roles.

The spectacles of La Cenerentola will be on 20, 21 and 22 March at 19.00 h. The tickets are at the prices from BGN 10 to 50 and are sold at the Ticket office of Sofia Opera and Ballet (1, Vrabcha Str.), online at www.operasofia.bg and in the distribution net of Eventim.