Today, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Sofia Opera and Ballet and the National Opera and Ballet, Skopje. At a special meeting in Sofia, the directors of the two institutions, Plamen Kartaloff and Vaso Ristov, discussed the establishment of cultural exchanges and the implementation of activities to promote joint cooperation in the field of culture and art, artistic exchanges, co-productions, sharing of experience and other activities for the implementation of opera and ballet projects.
The first official visit of the National Opera, Sofia, will be on 15 May 2024, when Richard Strauss' "Elektra" will be presented at the May Opera Nights at the National Opera and Ballet, Skopje.
This summer Mr. Ristov was a guest at the festival dedicated to the 210th anniversary of Richard Wagner's birth.
"I saw "Tristan und Isolde" and was elated. It was wonderful. Very high quality and amazing organisation of the festival. This tour is the first step towards further joint projects and if healthy we will invite the Sofia Opera with one of Wagner's productions".
We would like to remind you that on 16 September the Skopje Opera opened its new season with the restored production of the opera "Lydia of Macedonia" by Risto Avramovski in the directorial concept of Plamen Kartaloff, which was also presented at the international Ohrid Summer festival.
The opera "Elektra" was presented for the first time in Bulgaria on 26 November 2020 under the conducting of Evan-Alexis Christ and the direction of Plamen Kartaloff. This year, on 20 and 21 October, Sofia Opera was invited to perform this production at the 20th anniversary edition of the International Opera Festival in Daegu, Republic of Korea. After the enthusiastic reception from the audience, Sofia Opera's production received the Grand Prize of the festival, and the Korean national television announced that it was "The most anticipated performance in this year's Daegu International Opera Festival".
