10 august 2022 UN BALLO IN MASCHERA at the Thracian Sanctuary of Begliktash

The second event of the 2022 "Opera of the Sanctuary" festival, organized for the third time by the State Opera - Burgas and the Municipality of Primorsko, will unfold the dramatic story of Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Ball with Masks" on August 13 at 8:30 p.m. The first festival title - "Madame Butterfly" by Giacomo Puccini, was an expected success in front of an enthusiastic international audience of over 300 people. In the mystical place, believed to be the ancient observatory of the Thracians, on the open stage under the starry sky in the megalithic sanctuary of Begliktash, on Saturday evening the story will be presented, telling about the sanctity of feelings, weaving its destructive power into a sad tale of love, jealousy, and redemption. Attendees will be moved by the dramatic relationships between the characters, reflecting their sinful desires, marked by the path to painful realization - under the pressure of the dictates of public morality. The audience will witness the entanglement of fateful knots and the unraveling of human destinies. The concept of "mask" has acquired a new meaning saturation with a social resonance in the last two and a half years. And art is the antithesis of the unflattering facts of life, although it reflects and transforms them...

Verdi's operatic work contains secrets, conspiracies, internal struggles, a quest for redemption typical of stage music - all this, woven into a beautiful musical narrative about the power of feelings, about the fate of meetings, relationships, separations. The staging of Verdi's opera, through the innovative directorial decisions of Assoc. Dr. Alexander Tekeliev, will unfold its dramatic brilliance on the stage in Begliktash. The performance is an analogue of life's masked ball, which contains the entire spectrum of emotions and feelings - tearing doubts, treacherous aspirations, a whirlpool of passions, pure love marked with doom, dramatic endings... And the thought woven into every detail of the performance , and the symbolism following and shaping every detail in the director's ideas, and the semiotic elements of the original scenographic solutions, and the wonderful stage performance of the singers from the strong artistic cast, and the invested emotion, and the lavishness and character of the costumes, and the synchronicity, and the overall balance between the individual connecting links in a large-scale spectacle – everything is at the height of the most demanding aesthetic criteria in the staging.

The conductor of the Masked Ball will be maestro Sunai Muratov, who was also brilliant behind the console at the first event of the "Opera na svetilishteto" festival - "Madame Butterfly", conductor of the choir - Nevena Mihailova, concertmaster - Hristo Belchev, assistant director - Lina Peeva. The scenography of "Ball with Masks" by Dimo ​​Kostadinov is stylish and impressive for the overall impact of the performance, and the costumes of Lili Kostadinova are beautiful and consistent with the character of the characters, whose general vision they complement. The plastic work is by the late Grisha Roglev, the subtitles, which help the overall perception of the action and are projected on specially built screens in front of the audience under the open sky of Begliktash, are the work of Srebrina Slavova.

The artistic cast is magnificent: the guest Valery Georgiev takes on the role of the noble Ricardo, the magnificent dramatic soprano Ioana Zhelezcheva, who was unforgettable Cho-Cho-San in the first festival evening, will be reincarnated in the image of Amelia – torn between love and debt, the eminent baritone Marjan Jovanoski will be the ambitious Renato - on August 9th, he was brilliantly transformed into his crowning role as Scarpia in "Tosca" by Giacomo Puccini on the stage of the Summer Theater in Burgas. The soprano Miglena Slavova - guest, reprises the role of Oscar, she also participated in the production in 2019, when she made her successful debut in the role during the Burgas Music Festival "Emil Chakarov". The brilliant mezzo-soprano Daniela Dyakova will be the mysterious and respectable fortune teller Ulrika. During the final festival night of the Sanctuary Opera, audiences will have the privilege of seeing and hearing her in her crowning role – as the beautiful seductress Carmen in Georges Bizet's opera of the same name – on August 20. As the two conspirators, the Burgas audience will see the bass players Delyan Slavov - as Samuel, and Petar Tiholov - Tom. Baritone Branimir Nedkov will play Silvano, Lyubomir Todorov will play the Chief Judge, and Milen Dinolov - Amelia's servant. The dramatic plot of "Masquerade Ball" infuses the construction of memorable images, which in sync with orchestra, choir and ballet will provide not only aesthetic pleasure, but also thought-provoking...

Tickets - at the box office of the Opera House, the "Chasovnika" box office, at the Tourist Information Center in the town of Primorsko, on the spot - before the performance, as well as in the Grabo and Eventim networks,