site.btaOperawire on Wagner’s Ring Cycle at Sofia Opera and Ballet: The Sustained and Enthusiastic Applause Was Fully Deserved

A recent review of the premiere of Wagner Festival in the Sofia Opera and Ballet, in the website for operatic news and information, Operawire, is lavish in praise for the new production of  Wagner’s Ring cycle. On the final evening,which was for Götterdämmerung, “the audience reacted with sustained and enthusiastic applause” for the singers, the conductor and the production team, and “it was fully deserved”, writes Operawire author Alan Neilson.

Operawire offers the latest news from around the world while also providing readers with greater insight through interviews with prominent artists, reviews and other unique features (quizzes, artist profiles, editorials, essays).

The review of the Ring Cycle at Sofia Opera and Ballet looks at all aspects of the Wagner festival: the orchestra (conductor Constanti Trinks “successfully elicits a pleasing performance from the orchestra”); the direction of Plan Kartaloff (“aesthetically strong and clearly defined staging”)’ the scenography, costume design. lighting and multimedia (they “created a reading shorn of extraneous movement, unnecessary stage props and gimmickry”, which “allowed the story to play out in a streamlined and clear manner”). Some scenes were visually stunning, writes the author.

He points out that this is the second production of the Rinf Cycle in the last 13 years.

“Perhaps even more remarkable, however, is the fact that in a country with a population of less than seven million people, the cycle was cast almost entirely using home-grown talent, with only two singers coming from outside Bulgaria,” he says. He went on to analyze in most positive terms the performance of the cast: including soprano Mariana Zvetkova,  baritone Plamen Dimitrov, tenor Daniel Ostretsov, tenor Krassimir Dinev, basses Petar Buckov  and Stefan Vladimirov, Svetozar Rangelov, mezzo-soprano Silvana Pravcheva and Vesela Yaneva, sopranos Ayla Dobreva and Ina Kalinova and mezzo-soprano Alexandrina Stoyanova. 

"This was a production that would not be embarrassed in comparison to many major companies around the world", wrote the author.