18 october 2024 Notable Soloists Will Sing At "Bohemia" On Wednesday
In the year in which the whole musical world celebrates the 100th anniversary of Giacomo Puccini's death, the Burgas audience will have the opportunity to follow the dramatic-lyrical story of one of his emblematic operas - "Bohemia", on October 23, Wednesday, at 7 p.m., in the hall of the State Opera - Burgas. The Burgas Cultural Institute also dedicated other significant events to this anniversary, as well as to the 165th anniversary of the birth of the genius Italian composer: the large-scale opera gala "Viva Puccini" - in April in the Opera Hall, and another Puccini masterpiece - "Tosca " - in July on the stage of the Summer Theater, as part of the Burgas Music Festival "Emil Chakarov" 2024.
The distinguished Bulgarian conductor with a worldwide career, Ivan Kozhuharov, stands behind the desk of the performance on Wednesday. "Bohemia" is his element - as an embedded emotion and a brilliant conductor's interpretation. The solo composition of "Bohemia" is also noteworthy. A very strong vocal and artistic presence was achieved by the soprano Nona Krastnikova, as the gentle girl Mimi, with a pure soul, devoted entirely to the idea of love, as a fundamental meaning and stimulus in her life, which loses its happy undertones, slowly but surely - as the the incurable disease and the torments hovering in her loving heart. Her role is saturated with drama in lyrical highlights, nuanced with the overtones of tragic doom. Nona Krastnikova achieved a smooth gradation of emotions, being effective both in the quiet register reflecting the darkened shades of her pain, and in the crescendo of an emerging inner strength that is remarkable despite her outward vulnerability. Memorable, bright, stylish, sweeping with stage charm and very strong incarnations in her contradictory sides of the personality is the soprano Maria Tsvetkova-Madjarova, in the role of Musetta - a capricious beauty who, however, has a loving warm heart filled with empathy.
As Rudolph, a poet, one of the friendly company of Parisian bohemian students, the Venezuelan tenor Reynaldo Droz appears on the Burgas stage - a guest. Droz is a graduate of Raina Kabaivanska and winner of the 12th "Anita Cherkuetti" International Opera Competition in Montecosaro, Italy. She performs as a soloist on the stage of the Sofia Opera and Ballet and on other stages in Bulgaria. In the image of the singer with frivolous behavior - the charming coquette with a compassionate heart - Musetta, will be Maria Tsvetkova-Madjarova - soprano. The baritone Mindaugas Mishkinis, Lithuania - laureate of the Second National Competition for Young Opera Singers "Stoyan Popov" 2023, is the other friend from the bohemian company - the artist Marcel Participating in the performance of the State Opera - Burgas is part of his prize for the competition. In the role of Shonar, the musician, Kostadin Mechkov will appear on stage Hristozov, a baritone will also play the role of the wealthy Alcindor, the toy seller Perpignol will be played by the tenor Milen Dinolov, and the bass Petar Tiholov will play the role of Mitnichar/Sergeant.
The conductor of the show is Ivan Kozhuharov, the stage director - is Alexander Tekeliev, the artist - is Radostin Chomakov, the conductor of the choir - is Alexander Chepanov, assistant director - is Lina Peeva. All the soloists, orchestra players, and artist-choristers were united by a single sense of tragic romantic doom, and psychological depth, but without unnecessary pathos, invested in Puccini's score, undeniably genius. The production of Assoc. Dr. Alexander Tekeliev completely impresses the semantic and aesthetic points of the composer and the libretto, building the characters and weaving them into the action, with a polyphonic skill of the embedded ideas in the layers of plot development.
"The great pain in the little soul" — this is the theme of Puccini's operas,
as the composer wrote in a letter to Gabriele D'Annunzio in 1912.
Nothing in his work contains this message more clearly than the last act of "Bohemia".
The composer worked with great desire on this operatic work of his. He completed the opera in just eight months. His words speak of his emotional interpenetration with the work: "When I began to describe Mimi's death and the gloomy chords came to me, playing them, I was overcome with such excitement that I had to get up and alone in the silence of the night I wept uncontrollably." The first performance of the opera "Bohemia" took place on February 1, 1896, in Turin, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Immediately, with a difference of only a few days, it was performed in many Italian theaters - Rome, Naples, and Palermo, and the entire first act was encore in Palermo.
The score of "Bohemia" contains the most exciting features of Puccini's lyrical musical concept - sincere-warm melody, gushing emotionality, romantic undertones, and drama. The stage action is woven from genre-comic scenes, alternating with lyrical episodes and moments saturated with drama, bordering on tragic doom, dark poetics, and psychologism with condensed colors in the emotional spectrum, but without unnecessary pathos. The genius Puccini immediately woven the carefree laughter characteristic of the Parisian bohemia, running parallel to the ardent feelings of love and torments, passing into the dark shades of inconsolable sorrow, foreshadowing a tragic end. Puccini's music abounds in melodious arias, duets, and ensembles, in which the characters' images are reflected with psychological skill. An important role in the overall production is also assigned to the orchestra, and the leitmotifs appear in the fabric of the stage action depending on the characters' mental states.
Tickets for "Bohemia" - at the box office of the Opera, the "Chasovnika" box office /in front of the "Bulgaria" hotel/, as well as on the Eventim networks - https://www.eventim.bg/bg/bileti/bohemi-burgas-opera- 652454/event.html?ca=2, and Grabo - https://grabo.bg/burgas/opera-03v746d.