17 december 2024 A Brilliant Finale Of '24 With The Christmas Concert On Thursday

On the eve of Christmas, a symbol of the desire for more harmony and love in relationships, the State Opera - Burgas has prepared the traditional Christmas concert, under the baton of the doyen of the native cultural space - Yordan Dafov, winner of the "Golden Age" award of the Ministry of Culture. The respected conductor is among the prominent figures honored for his contribution to the development of culture and the affirmation of national identity. Maestro Dafov continues to be extremely energetic, precise, and inspiring the orchestra members and the audience with his refined individual view of the scores and personal charisma, which unites musical ideas and weaves them into a single aesthetic suggestion. On December 19, Thursday, at 7 p.m. in the hall of the Burgas Opera, Yordan Dafov will take the stage at the festive concert, which will feature soloists, an orchestra – with concertmaster Vanya Zlateva, and a choir – with conductor Alexander Chepanov, as well as the young talents of the Milka Stoeva Children's Choir. The Milka Stoeva Choir is the bearer of the traditions of a long-standing choral school, with a series of impressive national and international performances, and is the winner of prestigious awards over the years. During the summer season of this year, the children from the forest participated in the performance of Tosca at the Summer Theater. They are a frequent and welcome guest in concert events and productions of the Burgas Opera – as a symbol of continuity in art.

The Christmas concert program on Thursday includes works by Antonio Vivaldi and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, united in a common design, subordinated to the general mood under the sign of the holiness of the upcoming great Christian holiday.

In the festively decorated hall of the Opera House, the following will be performed: The overture to the opera "Die Abduction" by W. A. ​​Mozart, the Cantata "Gloria" in D major by Antonio Vivaldi, and "Coronation Mass" for soloists, choir, and orchestra in C major by Mozart.

The score of the "Coronation Mass" was completed in 1779. Soon after Mozart's death, the Mass became his most popular sacred work. It was called Coronation because it was often used in solemn services for the coronation of kings, emperors, and thanksgiving masses. There is another version that it was written by the composer for one of the Theotokos church holidays - the crowning of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God. Mozart deeply revered and relied on the mercy of the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of Salzburg. He dedicated several of his works to her. The mass in C major has a festive character. Probably for the first time, Mozart's Coronation Mass was heard in a church-religious sense in more recent times: in 1985, during a church service celebrated by Pope John Paul II, at which a choir and orchestra were allowed in St. Peter's Cathedral in the Vatican for the first time, the mass was performed by the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Choral Society under the baton of Herbert von Karajan.

The other work of the cantata-oratorio genre that will be performed at the Christmas Concert on December 19 is the Cantata Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi, composed in Venice, probably in 1715, for the choir of the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for girls (or more likely a home generously endowed by the "anonymous" fathers of the girls, illegitimate daughters of Venetian nobles). Vivaldi, who was a priest, music teacher, and virtuoso violinist, composed many sacred works for the Ospedale orphanage, where he spent most of his career. The cantata is his most famous choral work. It presents the traditional "Gloria" from the Latin mass in twelve varied cantata-like parts and is distinguished by the melodies and rhythms characteristic of Vivaldi's work, giving it a universal sound. For two centuries after Vivaldi's death (he died in 1741), the "Gloria" lay undiscovered until the late 1920s, when it was found buried among a pile of the composer's forgotten manuscripts. However, it was not performed until September 1939 in Siena in an elaborate and expanded edition by the composer Alfredo Casella. It was not until 1957 that the original version was published and presented at the First Festival of Baroque Choral Music at Brooklyn College, New York.

Soloists of the Coronation Mass will be: soprano Maria Tsvetkova-Madzharova, mezzo-soprano Ioana Kadiyska, tenor Yani Nikolov, and bass Kostadin Mechkov. All four soloists of the Burgas Opera have works from the cantata-oratorio genre in their repertoire and fit perfectly into the overall festive sound and message of the mass - with magnificent vocal qualities, style, and respect for the original musical source. They were also soloists at the Easter Concert this year, also under the baton of Maestro Dafov, when, together with the orchestra and choir of the Burgas Opera, they performed the impressive Mass in C major for soloists, choir, and orchestra by Ludwig van Beethoven. Soloists of the Cantata Gloria by Vivaldi will be: Dilyana Doneva, soprano, and Irina Dobrovolskaya - mezzo-soprano. Together with Joanna Kadiyska and Maria Slavova /guest/, Dilyana Doneva is preparing for the role of Silva for the premiere of "The Queen of Csárdás", which will delight fans of the operetta genre on February 26, 2025, in the hall of the Opera. Irina Dobrovolskaya the Burgas audience had the pleasure of seeing in the role of Mrs. Pierce in the performance of the musical "My Fair Lady" a few days ago in the hall of the Burgas Cultural Institute.

In the musical and stage program on December 19, the soloists, orchestral and choral ensemble of the Burgas Opera, and the singers of the children's choir "Milka Stoeva" will create the festive chords of the Christmas concert, which will continue to provide stimulus and charge with the messages of high art.

We hope that in the upcoming year 2025, fans of classical music will once again be an integral part of experiencing the concerts and performances of the Burgas Opera, continuing to believe in the ennobling role of music, which makes life more harmonious, beautiful, enriched with emotions and meaning.