site.bta"Das Rheingold" Kicks Off Sofia Opera Wagner Festival

"Das Rheingold", the first part of the Ring of the Nibelung tetralogy, marked the beginning of the Sofia Opera Wagner Festival at the Sofia Opera and Ballet. 

The performance was greeted with great enthusiasm by the audience, and the thunderous applause after the end was for the fantastic soloists, orchestra and production team of the new Ring, the opera said.

Wagnerians from Norway, the UK, Luxembourg, Germany and Australia commented on the direction and set design, and the interpretation of the soloists and orchestra. They are particularly intrigued by the fact that the singing line-up is entirely Bulgarian. 

Music critics and notable experts of Richard Wagner's work - Tony Cooper from Opera Critic, London, Andrea Merli from Italy, Klaus Bjland from Der Neue Merker, Vienna, Alan Nilsson from OperaWire, London, Phil Ward from Opera Now, London, Gregor Tassi from Glasgow, Jürgen König - Radio Berlin/Brandenburg, Germany - were especially invited to the opening of the festival. They leave flattering reviews of "Das Rheingold" as a vision of the director Plamen Kartalov and the stage designer Hans Kudlich, as a philosophical construction of the performance and its perfect interpretation. The costumes by Hristiana Zorbalieva and the artistic lighting by Andrey Haidinyak are also highlights of the production.

Maestro Konstantin Trinks also had his admirers, who came from Germany and Great Britain, to applaud Sofia's "Das Rheingold", the opera added.

Culture Minister Krastyu Krastev was a guest at the premiere. Sending a basket of flowers, he expressed his special congratulations to Acad. Kartalov and all the artists, hoping to watch the next performances.

In "Das Rheingold" - the prelude to the tetralogy - the soloists were Nikolay Petrov, Mariana Tsvetkova, Plamen Dimitrov, Daniel Ostretsov, Krasimir Dinev, Peter Buchkov, Stefan Vladimirov, Svetozar Rangelov, Hrisimir Damyanov, Silvana Pravcheva, Vesela Yaneva, Ina Kalinova, Ayla Dobreva and Alexandrina Stoyanova-Andreeva.