site.bta Sofia Opera to Perform Tosca in Ankara

The Sofia Opera and Ballet is on tour in Turkiye with Puccini’s Tosca: in Ankara on November 8 and Istanbul on November 11. The tour is mottoed "Bulgaria Congratulates Turkiye: Happy Centenary of the Republic!". It is held under the auspices of the wives of the two countries' presidents, Desislava Radeva, wife of Bulgaria and Emine Erdogan of Turkiye. 

Turkiye celebrated the centenary of the republic on October 29.

The operatic performances will be charitable and all proceeds will go to the areas in Turkiye affected by the devastating earthquakes in February this year.

The idea for the two concerts came from Bulgarian Ambassador in Ankara Angel Cholakov and was backed by the Bulgarian Culture Ministry. 

The Tosca that the Sofia Opera and Ballet will perform before the Turkish audience is directed by Plamen Kartaloff under the baton of Sunay Muratov, and the cast includes Radostina Nikolaeva, Kostadin Andreev and Ionut Pascu. 

The choice of this opera has to do with the personality of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who, during his tenure as military attache in Sofia between 1913 and 1915 was actively involved in the cultural life in the Bulgarian capital and was an avid visitor of the performances of the Bulgarian Operatic Society. Tosca is known to have been one of his favourite operas.