The Sofia Opera and Ballet hasn’t performed at the Bolshoi since 1981. More than 35 years have passed, not only art-trends have seen significant changes – the whole world has changed. Going to us, the theatre prepared itself to its greatest. Yana's Nine Brothers will open this large-scale tour with the thoughtful and ambitious program.
Yana's Nine Brothers – a masterpiece by the great Bulgarian composer Lyubomir Pipkov, is an opera, which reflects the search for national identity, and combines the achievements of the European opera of the XIX century with expressive avant-garde language peculiar to the music of the first decades of the XX century.
The Moscow audience has a unique opportunity to watch this piece at the Bolshoi – only on 12 May 2018. Meanwhile, this particular stage version appeared quite recently – just one and a half months ago – and can only be heard in Sofia!
It is obvious why the ballet Le Corsaire (May 13, 2018) is included in the tour’s program. On the one hand, it is one of the most acclaimed Petipa’s productions, and this year the ballet world is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the French and Russian ballet master. On the other hand, this is also a new production: it had its premiere in November 2017. The audience would surely want to compare this staging with the Bolshoi’s production of this ballet. However, this time the keynote specialist on Petipa is the choreographer Eldar Aliev who is firsthand-experienced in Russian ballet – before moving to the United States he danced at the Mariinsky theatre for more than a decade.
The tour will culminate in the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen. Sophisticated viewer is well aware of how much work and courage it takes to carry out the production of the entire Wagner's Ring cycle. This powerful and unprecedented for the Republic of Bulgaria (this is the first production of the Wagner’s tetralogy in the history of this theater) production is the Sofia Opera’s (and its stage director Plamen Kartaloff) contribution to the world celebration of the 200th anniversary of the German composer Richard Wagner.
From 2010 to 2013, every year one part of the cycle was produced - Das Rheingold in 2010 (on May 18, 2018 at the Bolshoi), Die Walküre in 2011 (on May 19, 2018 at the Bolshoi), Siegfried in 2012 (on 21 May, 2018 at the Bolshoi). Götterdämmerung (on May 21, 2018 at the Bolshoi) marked the 200th Anniversary of Wagner in 2013. There is no Wagner in the Bolshoi’s current repertoire, though our guests will perform his works!
Art. Lebedev Studio