site.btaSofia Opera to Stage Verdi's Aida on Four Consecutive Nights End-January

The Sofia Opera and Ballet will stage Giuseppe Verdi's Aida on four consecutive nights, from January 25 to 28, the organizers said. The production returns to the Bulgarian stage with performances from artists from Raina Kabaivanska's master classes at New Bulgarian University in Sofia and scholarship recipients of her endowment fund.

The lead roles of Aida, Radames, Amneris, Amonasro, the King of Egypt and Ramfis have been cast to Vittoria Yeo, Sofia Soloviy, Andrea Care, Davide Ryu, Veronica Simeoni, Ana Victoria Pitts, Hae Kang, Kostadin Mechkov and Bozhidar Bozhkilov. The opera will be performed under the baton of Paolo Andreoli.

Scenographer Hugo de Ana, who is Aida's director, set designer and costume designer, believes that artists today should not be prisoners of tradition but only its guardians. "And his Aida fully lives up to his creed. He inverted the reading of Aida to turn it into an intimate drama of complex relationships," the Sofia Opera said.