site.btaPride and Prejudice Comes to the Sofia Opera Stage

Sofia Opera and Ballet stages Pride and Prejudice, a ballet based on Jane Austen’s novel, for the first time, organizers said on Saturday.

Further performances are scheduled for March 22, 24 and 25, with choreography by Leo Mujic.

Mujic said he strongly believes in ballet as a medium and in its power to reach people. “I strongly believe in the medium of ballet, that it is very powerful and people can understand what it conveys to them. I believe there are certain words that are understood best when they are not spoken,” Mujic said.

He added that the company would not stage something people would not want to see. Before work began on the ballet, a kind of survey was carried out to see whether audiences would watch it and whether there was interest in it, he said. In his words, Pride and Prejudice is an evergreen.

Dramaturge and assistant director Balint Rauscher said the composers were chosen very carefully so they would support the story. The production uses music only by English composers: Ralph Vaughan Williams, Edward Elgar, Henry Purcell, Hubert Parry and George Frideric Handel.

Speaking about his work with the ballet company, Mujic said no actor in the world can dance the way a dancer can perform as an actor on stage. He added that nothing can surprise him because he is very well prepared. “I am an optimist and I think reality is what it is. I know where I am geographically and culturally, and from that we make the best possible thing,” Mujic said.

Frederico Pinto, who dances the role of Darcy, said rehearsals had been very intense and technically very difficult. “But I think it will be very easy for the audience to recognize the plot and the characters on stage,” Pinto said.

Katerina Petrova, who performs the role of Jane Bennet, said: “Something very exciting and very grand lies ahead of us.”

Maria Yordanova, who appears as Mrs. Bennet, said: “Everything in this production is very colourful, very vivid, very intense in dramaturgical terms.”

Rauscher said the production’s colours are classical. “Many of the characters are dressed in white. Overall, the colours are pale and pastel, to respect that age of classicism,” Rauscher said.