"This is the fourth consecutive year that the World Opera Day has been celebrated. Its theme now is 'Unpacking the Opera', which means taking it out of the box of the opera stage, unwrapping the ribbons and the lovely luxury packaging and showing it as it is inside. This is something we do not only on this day, but every day, because every day is a world day for our art. It's international, it's connected with all those messages that the audience has to receive, not just to be fleetingly involved, but to be really with a consciousness that opera art brings beauty, that the value of opera is a lasting incarnation in the souls and eyes of the opera spectator."

This said in an interview for BNR acad. Plamen Kartaloff, Director of the Sofia Opera and Ballet.

"I keep saying too that opera is not a acquisition only for the richest and for those who can pay around the world for the most expensive tickets, to travel wherever a composer, like Wagner, attracts them. He has many admirers who organise themselves into societies that do not miss an opera performance wherever it is around the world," he points out on the air of "Nashiyat den", adding:

"For there to be interest, the audience has to be created from a very early age. The spectacles we do, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday on our Small stage, the kids who come to them grow up and then go to the Main hall. That's the point of the universal in opera, to create an audience that needs to be there all the time.

The value of opera art must be realized, it ennobles. I have witnessed when people who have no relation to the genre and to opera suddenly become beautiful and noble. Their faces become delightful when you touch them and they become part of this art called "magical". That's why we try at Sofia Opera to constantly create new and new spectacles so that we can maintain a lasting interest".

"During the past season, we had many interesting events dedicated to authors and schools. One of these wonderful performances of ours was the premiere of the opera "Chatterers" by Lazar Nikolov based on the short novel by Ivan Vazov. It was truly a cultural event for us as well. After more than 40 years from the writing of the work, we managed to make this title with great love and enthusiasm. It is very interesting that the audience accepted it too, although I call it an avant-garde phenomenon. The music in it is not easy, but Vazov's work itself is absurd in situations that very adequately approach today's ones. We had fun and "Chatterers" on the Sofia stage was a big celebration," he says further.

Listen to the full conversation in the audio file.

https://bnr.bg/hristobotev/post/101725815/razgovor