16 july 2021 La Traviata With An International Star Cast On Saturday Guest soloists Vesna Djurkovic and Krum Galabov appear on the stage of the Summer Theater

One of the most performed opera titles - Verdi's "La Traviata" will be the focus of the summer cultural program of Burgas. The opera title is part of the program of the Burgas Music Festival "Emil Chakarov", realized for the 14th consecutive year by the State Opera - Burgas and the Municipality of Burgas. The charismatic young soprano from Serbia, Vesna Djurkovic, plays Violeta Valeri as soloists on the stage of the Summer Theater. Despite her 29 years, she has a remarkable creative biography and a promising future. The role of Georges Germont is played by the Bulgarian baritone with successful performances on the world stage by Krum Galabov. Under the baton of maestro Ivan Kozhuharov, who has the talent and unifying energy to turn any performance or concert conducted by him into a musical event on Saturday, July 17, from 20.30 on the stage of the Summer Theater - Burgas, to tell the eternal tragic story about the traps and fateful challenges of love, star guests Vesna Djurkovic and Krum Galabov and the artists of the Burgas Opera troupe come out: tenor Daniel Damyanov - as Alfred Germont, mezzo-soprano Joanna Kadiyska - as Flora Bervosta, bass Baron Dufol, baritone Branimir Nedkov - Marquis d'Aubini, soprano Stefka Hristozova - as Anina, tenor Milen Dinolov - Viscount Gaston de Letorier, bass Diman Panchev - Dr. Grenville, tenor Miroslav Dimitrov - Joseph and Nikolai Nikolova - Sluga. The magnificent direction of "La Traviata" is by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alexander Tekeliev and combines original techniques and innovative approaches to the construction of images in the dramatic plot of the novel by Alexandre Dumas - son of "La Dame aux Camélias" / "The Lady with the Camellias" /. Attractive and containing an allegorical charge is the scenography of Catalin Arbore / Romania /, which uses mirror images - as a symbol of metamorphoses in the human soul and the unity of light and dark beginning in the overall image of a person. Arbore is also the author of the beautiful stage costumes for the production of La Traviata. The conductor of the choir, which is assigned an important role in the overall development of the plot action, is Nevena Mihailova, the concertmaster is Yordan Kovachev. The choreography is by Galina Kalcheva, assistant director of the production is Lina Peeva, prompter - Dora Fartunova, subtitles - Srebrina Slavova. The large-scale performance is attended by the artistic ensembles of the orchestra, choir, and ballet of the State Opera - Burgas.
La Traviata is an opera that every music lover should have seen in several stage versions - to discover, through his own taste and sense of art, the one that impresses his criteria - both as an aesthetic and as a vision and as a way of conveying the eternal messages of the classics in an updated form, in which the current issues of today resonate. Definitely, the staging of the Burgas Opera is a glove of challenge thrown to the routine and scholasticism in the interpretation of the eternal theme of love, not subject to prejudices and the pressure of conjuncture, the collapse of the soul, the search for comfort in reciprocity and most of all - the apotheosis of Beauty, in its most sublime dimensions.
Tickets for "La Traviata" can be found at the box office of the Opera, at the box office "Clock" / in front of the hotel "Bulgaria" /, as well as in the networks of Grabo and Eventim, in the links to events in the program: https://operabourgas.com/ bg/program in the official website of the State Opera - Burgas, as well as on the site of the Summer Theater before the event.
IMPORTANT:
According to the requirements of the Ministry of Health, the permissible capacity of presence in the Summer Theater is 50%.

Vesna Djurkovic is a Serbian soprano born in 1992, in Zrenjanin.

She graduated at the Faculty of music arts in Belgrade, classical singing department, in the class of Professor Lyudmila Gross, Bachelor’s (2015) and Master’s (2016).

During her education, she participated in a number of competitions and she won 1 st prize and the award for the most beautiful voice at the international competition “Bruna Spiler” in

Montenegro (2011) and 1 st prize at the international competition “Nikola Cvejic” in Serbia (2014). The faculty of music arts awarded her as the student with the highest score in major subject (2016).

Her stage debut was in Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” in National Theatre in Belgrade with the role of Belinda (2013).

Year after, she sang in Monteverdi’s “The Coronation of Poppea” the role of Drusilla, in Opera and Theatre “Madlenianum” in Belgrade. Both operas were conducted by maestro Predrag Gosta (Serbia/SAD) and artistic leadership was a famous baroque singer

Marijana Mijanovic.

As a part of The National Theatre’s opera studio in Belgrade (2016/17;2017/18) she worked with Serbian conductors and stage directors, very soon she started to sing in the current Opera’s repertoire - Adele (Die Fledermaus), Oscar (Un Ballo in maschera), Brbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro), Nella (Gianni Schicchi) and First Lady (Die Zauberflote).

On the occasion of the celebration The Year of Prokofiev (2016) she sang the title role of Prokofiev’s one-act opera “Maddalena” in the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Belgrade.

Vesna debuted with success as Musetta (La Boheme) in the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad (2017) conducted by Italian maestro Gianluca Marciano.

After completing the opera studio, she made her role debut as Gilda (Rigoletto), also in National Theatre in Belgrade (2019).

She collaborated with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra as a soprano solo in Beethoven Egmont, under the baton of maestro Gabriel Feltz (2019).

Several times she was a guest in concerts of the Zrenjanin Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as of the Symphony Orchestra of Vojvodina.

She also was a guest in Zeljko Lucic’s concert “Zeljko Lucic and Friends” in Zrenjanin (2015).

From an early age, Krum Galabov was a soloist of the representative Boys choir in Plovdiv, with which he took part in many concerts and international tours. In 1994 he won the First prize at the International Music Festival “Varna Summer” and scholarship from the National Music Academy “Pancho Vladigerov“ and continued his education in opera singing in the Supreme Academy of Music and Fine Arts Vienna in the class of KS. Margarita Lilova.

In the period 1996-2000, Krum Galabov worked as a soloist in Burgtheater Vienna. Since 2001 he was a soloist of Wiener Residenzorchester and Salonorchester Alt Wien and meanwhile worked on his vocal technique with the world-famous prima Ghena Dimitrova.

In 2012 he made a very successful debut with the monumental five-act production of “Don Carlos” in French in Teatro Argentino de la Plata, Buenos Aires. Krum Galabov has performed in Arena di Verona, Teatro Filarmonico di Verona, with the National symphony orchestra of Taiwan, Beethoven Orchester–Bonn, and many more. In 2013 he performed the role of Silvio in the staging of Pagliacci in Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, directed by Franco Zeffirelli. In the same year, Krum Galabov took part in the opening ceremony of the traditional “Apolonia” Festival in Sozopol with KS. Krassimira Stoyanova. In 2014 he made three main role debuts – as Cavalier Belfiore in the comic opera “King for one day” by Giuseppe Verdi, the title role in Nabucco and Baron Scarpia from Puccini’s Tosca. He also performed in Don Carlo (Marquis Posa), Traviata (Germont), La Boheme (Marcello) and held many concerts in Bulgaria, among others with the famous bass Paata Burchuladze at the Opera Festival in Plovdiv, concert tours in Austria and Switzerland. In 2015 he sang the title role in the new Rigoletto production in Kaiserslautern, Germont in La Traviata at the Opera Festival in Schwerin and Vladikavkas, Marcello in Coburg, “Messa per Rossini” with the Symphony Orchestra in Wuppertal e.t.c. Future engagements include Aida (Amonastro) in Catania and at the Opera Festival in Schwerin, Marcello and Don Carlo in St. Petersburg and Italy e.t.c.

Krum Galabov has worked among others with stage directors such as Franco Zeffirelli, Federico Tiezzi, Otto Schenk, Einar Schleef, Andrea Breth, Renzo Giacchieri, and Vera Nemirova. He is an honorary member of the “Boris Christoff” foundation.

Krum Galabov is fluent in German, Italian, and Russian. Bulgarian is his mother tongue.

Daniel Damyanov graduated in Orthodox Theology at the University of Veliko Tarnovo "St.St. Cyril and Methodius". He studied opera singing as a private student with Stoyan Kisov and Kostadinka Nikolova. In 2007 he started working as a soloist at the Ruse Opera, participated in opera performances in Sofia, Varna, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Plovdiv. His repertoire includes the parts of: Cavaradossi in Tosca; Don Alvaro in The Power of Fate; The Duke in Rigoletto; Calaf in Turandot; Don Jose in Carmen; De Grijo in Manon Lescaut; Radames in Aida; Canio in the Clowns; Manrico in The Troubadour; McDuff in "Macbeth", "Requiem" by Verdi; Alfredo in La Traviata; Ishmael in Nabucco, Foresto in Attila; Othello in Othello; Don Carlos in Don Carlos.

 

IVAN KOZHUHAROV - Chief Conductor of the State Opera - Burgas

Born in 1950 in the town of Tryavna. At the age of 9, he began to play the violin. Later he switched to viola because he wanted to form a quartet, and no one in the city knew this instrument.

He graduated from the Secondary Music School with a degree in Viola, Prof. Veselin Stoyanov ”in Ruse. He studied for two years at the Bulgarian State Conservatory/today the National Academy of Music - Sofia, Faculty of Theory, viola with Prof. Alexander Neynski, and choral conducting with Prof. Vasil Arnaudov.

Since 1971 he has been studying Opera and Symphony Conducting as a student of the professors: Sherman, Robinovich, Arvid, and Maris Jansons, at the State Conservatory “N. A. Korsakov ”, St. Petersburg, Russia, graduating in 1976 as a graduate. His graduation performance of Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro was filmed by Soviet television in Moscow.

During his studies, he worked for one season at the Leningrad Theater of Musical Comedy - Opera, with which he toured in cities of Russia and Estonia, and taught at the Institute of Theater, Music, and Cinema.

His military service took place in SHPZO - Vratsa, and then as a conductor of the Representative Ensemble of BNA - Sofia. As a soldier, he started working at the State Opera - Burgas, where he was appointed, after his dismissal from the army, in 1978.

There he staged the operas "The Magic Flute" and "The Wedding of Figaro" by Mozart, "Rigoletto" and "Othello" by Verdi, "Porgy and Bess" by Gershwin, "Village Honor" by Maskani, and the ballets "The Three-Topped Hat" by Manuel De Faia and "Romeo and Juliet" by Sergei Prokofiev.

In 1985 he moved to the State Philharmonic - Burgas, where he was, successively, conductor, chief artistic director and director. Enriches the orchestra's repertoire with works by Bruckner, Mahler / all symphonies, including the spectacular Eighth Symphony - with two orchestras, five people, and eight soloists - all over 320 people /, Onager, Bartok, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and others.

When the OFD was established, in 1999 he was its music director, after its dissolution and transformation, in 2008 - the conductor was the chief conductor of the Opera. For a short time, he worked in OFD - Ruse.

In 1979 he was a semi-finalist in the competition of the Herbert von Karajan Foundation in West Berlin, and in 1980 he was a laureate and winner of the Grande Prix in the name of Bella Bartok from the Third International Competition for Conductors of Hungarian Television in Budapest. The following year he starred in a film dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the composer, produced by television in the United States, Canada, and Hungary.

He has conducted all Bulgarian opera houses and symphony orchestras / excluding Pazardzhik /, all Hungarian symphony orchestras, as well as those in Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Serbia.

Works at the National Opera Theaters in Sofia, Prague, Budapest, Belgrade, and Skopje, as well as with the National Symphony Orchestras and Philharmonic Orchestras in Sofia, Bratislava / Slovenia /, Cairo / Egypt /, Havana / Cuba /, Nicosia / Cyprus /, the Orchestra of Czech Radio in Prague, the Presidential Orchestra in Ankara / Turkey /, the State Orchestra in Thessaloniki / Greece /.

From 1999 to 2001 he was the conductor of the State Opera in Izmir / Turkey /, with which he participated in the festival in Aspendos. At the same time, he conducted the Mersin Opera.

In 2005 he worked in the Prima La Musika orchestra in Ghent / Belgium /, with which he participated in the Flemish Festival.

Since 1997 he has been regularly conducting the two orchestras of the State Philharmonic “D. D. Shostakovich ”in St. Petersburg, with whom he toured in various cities in Russia.

With the Burgas Philharmonic Orchestra he visited France and, repeatedly, Italy and Spain, and with the Opera - in Germany and Switzerland, with the operas "Troubadour", "Othello", "Falstaff" and Quattro Pezzi Sacri by Verdi, and at the festival on the island Rhodes - Greece with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Verdi's Requiem.

In Spain, he toured at the head of the Plovdiv Philharmonic, and in Italy - with the Plovdiv Opera / "Aida" by Verdi /.

Together with Arts Academy - Rome conducts conducting courses in Burgas and Anzio, Italy.

In 2005 he worked in the Prima la Musika orchestra in Ghent / Belgium /, with which he participated in the Flemish Festival.

He has conducted a New Chamber Ensemble in Camerata classica, Sofia, with which he recorded a series of CDs for DIVERRIMENTO - Vienna.

He recorded film music for SIF - 309 in the First Studio of the Bulgarian National Radio - Sofia and for Digital Records - Rome, with the London Symphony Orchestra in the famous Abbey Road studio in London.

Holder of the Order of Cyril and Methodius - II degree, three Golden Lyres, and Crystal Lyre of CMTDB for the production of "Countess Maritsa" in DMT "Stefan Makedonski".

Honorary citizen of Burgas.