Balkan Opera Network was established in Stara Zagora

News публикувана на: 07.12.2015

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On 4 and 5 December, within the framework of the Festival of Opera and Ballet Art - Stara Zagora, a creative meeting of directors and representatives of opera theatres from Bulgaria and from different Balkan countries took place. The forum is organized by the Municipality of Stara Zagora and Stara Zagora State Opera. Balkan Opera Network was established. The initiative was the idea of the director of the Stara Zagora Opera Ognyan Draganov. The network aims to create conditions for regular and sustainable partnership in the field of opera and ballet art.

The meeting was opened on December 4, at 10.00 with a welcome speech by the Deputy Mayor of Stara Zagora Ivanka Sotirova and the Director of the Stara Zagora Opera Ognyan Draganov. A presentation on "Musical and Performing Arts in the Balkan Region - Traditions, Achievements and Prospects" was made by Assoc. Dr. Emilia Žunić. The funding opportunities offered by the Creative Europe Programme for the performing arts were presented by Vesela Kondakova, Head of the Culture Office - Creative Europe Office - Bulgaria. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Ministry of Culture - Elianka Mihaylova - Acting Director of the Performing Arts and Arts Education Directorate and Ina Bozhidarova - State Expert at the Directorate. The participants asked numerous questions related to different aspects of cooperation.

The second day of the meeting passed in a business atmosphere. The participants discussed specific aspects of the copyright of the staging teams, the system of information exchange and management of the Network. The main ideas were summarized in a memorandum of cooperation.

13 participants - representatives of opera houses, NGOs, cultural operators and educational institutions - signed the Memorandum. The Memorandum provides for better mutual awareness, support for artistic and creative activities and partnership in promoting them among themselves and in other countries. The initiative is focused in better mutual knowledge, promotion of common historical past and cultural traditions; exchange of productions - sets, costumes and production teams; realization of co-productions and elimination of part of administrative orders with the instruments of intergovernmental agreements on cultural cooperation.

The signatories of the Memorandum are:

Aleksandar Stamatović - Deputy Director General of the National Theatre in Belgrade /Serbia/, Marijela Hasimbegović - Executive Director of the National Theatre Sarajevo /Bosnia and Herzegovina/, Daniela Vladescu - General Director of the National Opera and Ballet - Constanta, Romania, Anthony Armore - Director of the Blue Danube Impresario House - Vienna, Neil Mousse - Director of the Opera Master Program at the Music and Arts Private University - Vienna, Austria, Amir Schiff - Conductor - Israel, Alexander Tekeliev - Director of State Opera - Burgas, Daniela Dimova - Director of Theatre and Music Production Centre - Varna, Nina Naydenova - Director of State Opera - Plovdiv, Ognyan Draganov - Director of State Opera - Stara Zagora, Mariana Arsenova - Director - State Music and Ballet Centre - Sofia, Darina Takova - Executive Director of Darina Takova Foundation.

Other operas from the country and abroad have expressed their wish to participate and join the Balkan Opera Network established in Stara Zagora. Among the guests who attended the evening premiere of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Stara Zagora Opera House was prominent impresario and artistic consultant Adrian Holender from Vienna.