15 march 2023 "Rigoletto" With A Guest Conductor And Remarkable Soloists

The eternal story of meanness, seduction, false hopes, insidious urges, curse, and ominous denouement, woven into the libretto of one of the most famous operas by Giuseppe Verdi - "Rigoletto", will come alive on the stage of the State Opera - Burgas on March 18, Saturday, from 7 p.m. Under the baton of Matei Pop /Romania/, who conducted with great success the performance of "Troubadour" on the Burgas stage at the end of November 2022, the musical-stage story about the hunchbacked jester Rigoletto, the only joy in his simple life, will be presented – his beautiful daughter Gilda, for the unscrupulous Herzog, a unifying image of meanness, as well as for all the characters in the tragic tale of betrayed trust. The characters of one of Verdi's most famous operas, to which the composer himself did not hide his biases, will give the audience diverse experiences - from admiration for the power of pure love, destroyed by soullessness, to the tragic hopelessness of trampled naive impulses.

The highly emotional story of Rigoletto will be told on Saturday on the stage of the Opera House by a magnificent creative and artistic cast - through the means of syncretic operatic art, in a way that not only provides aesthetic pleasure but also excites and raises multifaceted questions.

On March 18, the controversial image of the jester Rigoletto will be recreated by the baritone Alexander Krunev - for him, this is a crowning role, successfully presented on different stages more than 100 times. The great Bulgarian baritone recently turned 60, and on the stage of the Burgas Opera his anniversary will be officially celebrated on April 27 with the concert "Alexander Krunev and Friends". The role of Gilda will be played by Maria Tsvetkova-Madjarova on Saturday. The beautiful soprano will be reincarnated again - with professionalism, a flair for character building, and vocal mastery, in the image of the naive girl living in her own little dream world, cut off from reality. Encountering a skilled seducer, in the person of the Duke, she falls into his demonic trap, which heralds her certain doom. In the will of the Duke of Mantua, the self-satisfied unscrupulous seducer and bon vivant enter the tenor Mihail Mihailov /guest/, who a few days ago performed the role of Pinkerton in "Madame Butterfly" by Giacomo Puccini at the Baltic Opera in Gdansk, Poland. In the summer of 2022, the famous Bulgarian tenor with an international career sang with great success the same part of the performance of Puccini's opera within the framework of the "Sanctuary Opera" festival on the open stage in the Thracian sanctuary of Begliktash. Mihail Mihailov also participated in the "Kiril Manolov and Friends" concert, which officially closed the Burgas Music Festival "Emil Chakarov" 2022 on the stage of the Summer Theater.

The bass Diman Panchev will play the role of the robber Sparafuchile, the mezzo-soprano Ioana Kadiyska, winner of the first prize at the First National Competition for Young Opera Singers with international participation "Stoyan Popov" /October 17-21, 2022/, re-enters the image of Madalena, sister of Sparafucile, Kalina Popova, mezzo-soprano, will be in the role of Giovanna, Count Monterone - bass Delyan Slavov, Count Ceprano - Petar Tiholov, bass, Countess Ceprano - Shmilena Sultanova, soprano, Marulo - Branimir Nedkov, baritone, Matteo Borsa - Lyubomir Todorov, tenor, Page - Stefka Hristozova, soprano.

The direction of the production, which relies on the complex interrelationships between the actors and a psychological approach in the construction of the images, is by Associate Professor Dr. Alexander Tekeliev, the artist is Ivan Popov, the conductor of the male choir - also an important participant in the overall action, is Nevena Mihailova, concertmaster – Hristo Belchev, assistant directors – Lina Peeva and Petar Tiholov. The performance is subtitled in Bulgarian, which makes it possible to follow the dramatic plot and dialogues in detail.

The music of "Rigoletto" by Verdi is delightful, the staging achieves an overall impression, exploring characters and presenting dramatic twists of fate, the performance - at a high artistic level. Fascinating is the unifying emotion in Verdi's opera, joining in a tangible way the separate components of the performance, in which each of the participants is equal - as invested professional energy and desire. Strong experiences and emotions are guaranteed on Saturday evening, March 18 at 7 p.m. in the hall of the Burgas Opera House.

About the оpera:

The libretto of Verdi's famous work "Rigoletto" is by Francesco Maria Piave, based on Victor Hugo's play "Le Roi s`amuse" /"The King Amuses"/ Verdi got so involved in writing the opera that he managed to finish it only in 40 days. The original name of the opera, The Curse, was subsequently changed several times. Due to censorship, some changes in the libretto are also required, with the emphasis being on the inner drama of the characters. La donna è mobile is among the most famous and frequently performed operatic arias in the world - the Duke of Mantua's song in the third, final act of Rigoletto. Translated, the title means "Woman is fickle/ windy/ fickle