Our artists also sing in the rain, the weather is no reason to cancel spectacles, says Maestro Kartaloff about the summer festivals of the Sofia Opera
The ship of "Der fliegende Holländer" docked at Lake Pancharevo. The Flying Dutchman is condemned to roam the vast expanse of the sea forever because he defied God. Every seven years he steps ashore for just a day, in an attempt to find redemption. Only the love of a faithful woman, ready to sacrifice herself for him, can free him from the heavy shackles of the curse.
Tempted by the ghostly captain's wealth, a Norwegian sailor named Daland agrees to give him the hand of his daughter Senta. Although betrothed to the hunter Erik, Senta is obsessed with the legends of the dark fate of the ever-wandering sea captain. As soon as she sees him, the girl pledges her allegiance to the Dutchman. She is ready to save his soul at the cost of her own life. That, in a nutshell, is the plot of Richard Wagner's most popular and most frequently staged opera.
With it, the Sofia Opera will open the third "Muses of Water " festival at Lake Pancharevo on 8 July. The premiere spectacles of "Der fliegende Holländer" will be performed in seven nights – on 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16 and 17.
"The spectacle "Der fliegende Holländer" was created especially for the stage in Pancharevo, with the possibility of performing it indoors as well. This was the case with "La Dona del Lago", so it will be with "Der fliegende Holländer", the director of the Wagner Opera and Director of the Sofia Opera Academician Plamen Kartaloff announced today at a meeting with the media by the lake, where he presented the programme of the Opera's summer festivals.
He showed part of the interesting set for the upcoming premiere performance, resembling a ship with stretched ship ropes. And the beautiful lake near Sofia will become a natural set for the Norwegian coast, where the action in "Der fliegende Holländer" takes place.
"For the new premiere, we have an international team and a triple line-up, as the weather cannot be a reason to cancel performances," explained the maestro. "We have decided to make another set on the opera stage so that we don't have to send back the audience back in bad weather," he added. Honour makes this decision of the Sofia Opera, which has repeatedly proven that neither the pandemic nor the atmospheric efforts are able to stop the artists from playing and giving 100% to the demanding audience.
Acad. Plamen Kartaloff is inspired to constantly discover new spaces in nature, where to stage opera spectacles
"You know that during the pandemic we were performing on eight stages, but we are now focusing our efforts on three places – in Pancharevo, Belogradchik and in the park of the Academy of Defence, which is the patron of all our summer performances," added the Director of the Sofia Opera.
The third edition of the "Muses of Water " festival by the Lake Pancharevo will be held from 8 July to 4 September. Opera and ballet spectacles will be performed in the beautiful nature, as well as the musical "Mamma Mia!".
"Opera in the Park" is held for the 13th year in a row. The summer festival in the beautiful park of the Academy of Defence, which this year is focused only on children, began on June 25 and continues until July 31.
The "Opera of the Peaks" festival, which takes place for the seventh time on the Belogradchik Rocks, will delight music lovers from 5 to 21 August. The spectators will enjoy opera and ballet jewels from the playbill of the Sofia Opera and the musical "Mamma Mia!"
This year, on 6 and 7 August and on 15 and 16 August, the Sofia Opera will visit the Ancient Theatre in Plovdiv with its hit musical "Mamma Mia!" and its latest ballet pearl "One Thousand and One Nights".
"You know that I like to discover such audacious territories, where no opera foot has set foot, nor has there been an opera performance. But this is a challenge and a desire to be closer to the opera audience and to expand it," commented Acad. Plamen Kartaloff. Bilyana Genova – Director of the "Culture" Directorate in the Sofia Municipality skilfully compared Plamen Kartaloff to an admiral, a seafarer who always discovers new territories and new scenes for performances.
"This sailing that we are doing, it started from the Battenberg Square and while the mausoleum was in its place we made "Aida", "Tsar Kaloyan", "Prince Igor." The mausoleum was destroyed, we didn't give up, we performed on the slabs, and then we moved to the Alexander Nevsky Square. There, in front of the temple, we made "Boris Godunov", then on the north side we staged "Nabucco" and gave way to others to continue to "Opera in the Park", and we chose our ship to dock at Lake Pancharevo", metaphorically expressed himself the Director of the Sofia Opera.
The Director of the Sofia Opera and the Mayor of Pancharevo district Nikolay Gyurov
Plamen Kartaloff highlighted the talent and dedication of all the Opera's soloists, chorus and orchestra, who give 100% for the sake of the audience. The Maestro recalled that when the whole world was closed and no opera stage was working because of the epidemic, the Sofia Opera was working. "You know that despite the crisis we are doing what we can for our audience," he added. Recordings of performances were streamlined online and the audience continued to watch opera and ballet productions.
Acad. Kartaloff prayed that the weather would be with the artists and that it would not rain during the spectacles on the summer stages. "Our artists sing even in the rain!", the Maestro joked, however, and said that in case of bad weather at the lake, the audience of "Muses of Water" will be invited to watch the performances in the building of the Opera.
The businessman Georgi Spasov, who is the owner of the place where the stage and the kind of amphitheatre were constructed, shared that a building is being built next to the lake, where concerts, opera and ballet performances will be held. The building will have everything necessary for the artists – rehearsal rooms, make-up rooms, cafeterias and a hall where the spectators will be accommodated in case of sudden bad weather conditions.
According to Plamen Kartaloff, the Bulgarian public is intelligent and demanding, but on the other hand, it is sometimes unmanageable and very capricious and insists on returning the tickets if rain prevented the performance at the finale of certain spectacle. He recounted an incident from last year when the ballet "Swan Lake" stopped ten minutes before the end because of heavy rain. "These ten minutes, one spectator wanted to watch them. And then we told her to come the next day at 21,30 h to watch those ten minutes. After the words of Acad. Kartaloff, according to international standards, if the first action has been completed, there is no responsibility for the non-implementation of the second, if it has been stopped due to force majeure circumstances.
As an excellent connoisseur of Wagner's work and inspired by the German composer, Acad. Plamen Kartaloff continued the tradition of staging his operatic masterpieces on the Bulgarian stage. After years both at home and abroad, the Maestro caused a sensation with his productions from the tetralogy "Der Ring des Nibelungen" – "Das Rheingold", "Die Walküre", "Siegfried" and "Götterdämmerung", as well as with "Tristan und Isolde" and "Parsifal", now the erudite director presents his reading of "Der fliegende Holländer" to his native audience.
Years ago, Acad. Kartaloff shared that Sofia fulfilled Wagner's dream, as for the first time on the Balkans the four operas from the "Der Ring des Nibelungen" were presented together. Now we can say that the Director of the Sofia Opera is fulfilling his dream of first presenting "Der fliegende Holländer" at the beautiful lake. And as he himself added with a sense of humour, Wagner wrote "Der fliegende Holländer" especially for Lake Pancharevo.
"Der fliegende Holländer" is the seventh production in the "My Wagner" series with the Sofia Opera. Again, this time in the open air, on the stage of Lake Pancharevo, after "Das Rheingold" (2020), in the midst of the then complicated pandemic threats and economic obstacles, normal life, also for making art, now we overcome again all inconveniences and crises, with our mission to serve the public, with our full responsibility, dedication and professionalism," said Acad. Kartaloff. This work is one of the highest achievements of German romantic opera, in which the soul world of the characters and their drama is revealed with deep penetration.
For the set design of "Der fliegende Holländer", the director was inspired by the magical world of the creative works of Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975), an English artist and sculptor, one of the brightest examples of the art of modernism.
"She herself, in her work, for the creation of her huge sculptures, according to her confessions, was inspired by nature and the world around her, the feelings she experienced in her contact with them, even by the crashing waves or the idea of the wind in her ears, also inspired by ancient architecture and monuments, by Greek amphitheatres, by the Bronze Age standing stones of Mên-an-Tol in West Cornwall, all this captured by her imagination, also outlines her art of abstract forms.
If they step out of the gallery halls, collectors' homes, or parks where her giant sculptures are on display, I boldly and confidently assert that I see Barbara Hepworth's masterpieces on stage and that she is an incomparable set designer. This is what I captured in my imagination from my touch with her work from sculptures, paintings, costumes. I felt as if enchanted, beholding in her abstract art, the true theatrical dimensionalism of Barbara Hepworth in action. I am grateful that I discovered and "met" her at the Museum of Modern Art in Montreal," shared Maestro Kartaloff.
The conductor of "Der fliegende Holländer" is the young but already world-famous Maestro Rossen Gergov. He was the chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio, he also worked with renowned foreign orchestras.
"I was sincerely excited after the first rehearsals, as the vocal level of my colleagues is very high and working with them is a pleasure. The same applies to the orchestra, with which I have a rather warm relationship and the work bears fruit quickly. It is wonderful that in Bulgaria alternative ways of acting are being sought apart from the established opera stages," said Rossen Gergov.