site.btaItalian Soprano to Sing at Opening of 14th Edition of Varna's Opera at the Summer Theatre Festival

The opening of the fourteenth edition of the Opera at the Summer Theatre festival in Varna will begin with a gala concert entitled "Tutto Verdi" on June 16. The stage will feature arias, choruses and ensembles performed by local and visiting opera singers under the baton of Italian conductor Jacopo Sipari di Pescasseroli. The gala is dedicated to the 210th anniversary of the birth of composer Giuseppe Verdi.

Among the guest performers who will arrive in Varna for the event is Italian soprano Donata D'Annunzio Lombardi, who has won the 2019 Puccini Prize, according to Varna Opera, which organises the outdoor summer festival.  Her multi-layered voice will be heard in the arias of Violetta from La Traviata and Leonora from The Force of Destiny.

French-Tunisian tenor Amadi Lagha will also take on roles from Verdi operas. He will be making his debut on the Varna stage, having sung in the opera houses of Leipzig, Verona, Marseille, and Dusseldorf. He and Lombardi will also perform the duet of Aida and Radames as a musical highlight of the gala concert.

Nineteen titles feature in the programme of the14th edition of Opera at the Summer Theatre, which runs until August 31. The closing also features an opera gala. It will feature a guest appearance by the prima Sonya Yoncheva, who will sing with the Varna Opera Orchestra conducted by Krastin Nastev, with visual stage design by Srebrina Sokolova.