"LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR" BY THE STARA ZAGORA OPERA IN PLOVDIV

News публикувана на: 18.04.2016

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"Lucia di Lammermoor" by Stara Zagora Opera in Plovdiv

The performance of the opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" by Donizetti of the Stara Zagora Opera attracted the attention of music lovers from all over Bulgaria after the impressive premiere of the bel canto masterpiece on December 5, 2015. We remind you that this performance closed the 46th edition of the Festival of Opera and Ballet Art in Stara Zagora.

On 21 April at 19.00 the performance will be presented for the first time outside Stara Zagora - in the Boris Hristov House of Culture in Plovdiv. In the performance of the opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" the brilliant soprano Veselina Vassileva will make her debut in front of the Plovdiv audience in the role of Lucia. Ivan Kabamitov will partner her in the role of her brother Enrico Ashton, Ivaylo Yovchev will take on the role of Lucia's long-suffering and imaginary love - Edgardo, Plamen Kumpikov will recreate the role of Raimondo, Boris Taskov will perform in the role of Arturo, Neli Necheva - Alice. Lyubomir Petkov, Bilyana Cholakova, Alexander Zhelev, the orchestra and choir of the State Opera-Stara Zagora, the Proto-Bulgarian Survival School "Baga-Tour" will also take part .

The performance of the opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" will be conducted by Ivaylo Krinchev. Directed by Ognyan Draganov, set design by Dimo Kostadinov, costume design by Salvatore Russo /Italy/. Conductor of the choir Mladen Stanev.

What defines the Stara Zagora Opera's production of Lucia di Lammermoor as extraordinary? Here is what the journalist Augusta Manoleva notes in her review article for the newspaper. Dnevnik, December 4, 2015:

"This bel canto masterpiece by Gaetano Donizetti is one of those rarely staged in Europe. It is not currently being performed in any of our country's opera houses. Not only does it require bravura performance, but there is also an interweaving between the musical and dramatic score, which in turn allows for individual creative insight.
The teamwork coalesces around the different staging of the storylines that unfold in the work. The emphasis (based on the libretto) is also different - the scene of Lucia's madness. If the moment of madness is central to the opera, used as a device by many composers during this period, Draganov turns it into a reminiscence and a scene in which Lucia looks down on the world. The way she would like to see it. It is only after her death that the image of Edgardo materialises, which is solely in her imagination and desires. The heroine finds her beloved above, in the more beautiful world.

Both the costumes and the set design are subordinated to the conventionality of the two worlds: the world that revolves around situations and the world above - standing and watching the revolving reality.

Dimo Kostadinov's scenography is a conductor of the main idea, and the path is from conventionality to clarity...

The costume designer is the Italian Salvatore Russo, a long-time artist at the Rome Opera. In our country he has already worked in team with Ognyan Draganov and at the Opera in Ruse. "I made the costumes according to the director's idea - Lucia is crazy from the very first scene. It's like everything around her is fantasy. Seen solely through her eyes. The costumes are from the era after 1543, the struggles between England and Scotland when Mary Steward came to the throne. We are respected by the text, the music, and Walter Scott's novel, which reconstructs an old story woven into the opera's libretto. I first did the title in Rome. The costumes are always connected to the direction. And in Italy, it was quite old and tired," Salvatore said. Here it's completely different, so I create everything as if for another situation. One of the important things in creating costumes is the historical way of cutting. The cutting of the fabrics is based on original Scottish cuts." Of course this cutting is run through his idea, through the idea of directing and the materials that are used. 92 men's and women's costumes were made, using 1259 metres of base cloth and 2100 metres for the stitching, embellishments and lace.

For the principal conductor Ivaylo Krinchev, Lucia is always a challenge because this example of bel canto literature requires a very careful approach in terms of the voices available. Tempo and dramaturgical characteristics must have their explanation and derivation through the soloists' capabilities. It is a boutique title because it is very difficult to be continuously present in the opera house poster. And restoration to the regular repertoire of opera always requires a rehearsal cycle with the soloists who enter it, because of the nuances in Donizetti's music...

This is the fourth time director Ognyan Draganov has staged this title. Since his debut at the National Opera, Sofia, 2002; through Colombia, Medellín - the second largest city, 2006; Bucharest 2007... All the productions are absolutely different from each other. Only the title Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), acknowledged as Donizetti's best opera not long after it was written, is unifying..."

On 21 April VESELINA VASILEVA will debut in front of the Plovdiv audience in the role of Lucia

Vesselina Vassileva graduated from the Vasil Vodenicharski School of Arts in Plovdiv. She graduated from the Vratsa Music School with a specialty in classical singing. She received her higher education at DMA ''Pancho Vladigerov'', where she graduated in the opera singing class of Assoc. Irena Brumbarova and in acting of prof. Pavel Gerdzhikov .

She specialized in opera interpretation with Gena Dimitrova, Maya Popova and Atanas Atanasov. Immediately after graduation she was accepted as a soloist at the State Opera - Ruse, after successfully passing the competition in first place.

Since 1998 she has toured with great success throughout Europe, the USA, Japan, Macedonia, Scandinavian countries, and has appeared in all Bulgarian opera houses. She has sung on various prestigious opera stages such as: Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Salzburg Auditorium-Austria, Queen Elizabeth II Concert Hall in London, Auditorium Theatre-Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Majestic Theatre in Boston, USA and major theatres in Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, New Jersey, St. Louis, Baltimore, Naples, East Palm Beach, Sarasota, Gdansk-Poland, etc.н.

She has been a guest at various opera festivals.

The singer considers her most prestigious achievement in the past 20 years of her artistic career to be her participation in the production of the first stage realization of Gaetano Donizetti's opera Emilia of Liverpool , which has not been staged since its creation in 1824. In the title role of Emilia, Veselina Vassileva is the first Bulgarian performer in the world music history of this opera, first staged in Liverpool, England in 2008 - the city was then the cultural capital of Europe.

Over the past few seasons, Veselina Vassileva has performed in the latest premieres of Verdi's La Traviata at the Burgas Opera House and Bizet's Les Bissiers at the Sofia Opera and Ballet.

He is a regular guest in Sofia Opera productions of Verdi's La Traviata and Rigoletto. The singer's repertoire also includes the roles of Neda from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Mimi and Musetta from La Boheme, Liu from Puccini's Turandot, Susanna and the Countess from Le nozze di Figaro, Zerlina from Mozart's Don Giovanni, Micaela from Bizet's Carmen, Margarita from Gounod's Faust, the soprano part from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. She has an extensive song and cantata-oratorio repertoire, recordings at the Bulgarian National Radio.

Soloists

Ivaylo Yovchev was born in Stara Zagora. He began to study opera singing with the long-time soloist of the State Opera-Stara Zagora - tenor Vasil Nedev. He continued his studies with prof. Resa Koleva as a private student. She specialized in the master classes of prof. He has a diploma from the master class in chamber music - French repertoire.
She has also toured in performances abroad. She participates in the project "Die himmlische Nacht der Tenore" with which she has given concerts almost all over Germany every winter since 2010. The singer's repertoire includes the roles of Abdallo and Ishmael from Nabucco, Edoardo from Verdi's King for a Day, Cassio from Otello, Emperor and Pong from Puccini's Turandot, Count Almaviva from Rossini's "The Barber of Seville", Camille di Rossignone from Lehar's operetta "The Merry Widow", Alfred from Strauss's "The Bat", Ferrando from Mozart's opera "So Do They All", etc., as well as the solo tenor parts from Mozart's Requiem and Rossini's Stabat Mater.

Plamen Kumpikov graduated from the National Academy of Music "Prof. Pancho Vladigerov in the class of Assen Selimski. He specialised at the Boris Hristov Academy of Art and Culture in Rome with Mirella Paruto and Antonio Boyer. He participated in the master classes of Raina Kabaivanska and Renato Bruzon, organized by the prestigious Experimental Opera Theatre "A. Belli" in Spoleto, Italy. While still a student she debuted on the stages of the opera theatres in Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Burgas in the roles of the King of Egypt from Verdi's opera Aida, the Commendatore from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, Zachariah from Verdi's Nabucco. He made his debut at the Sofia Opera in 2004 in the role of Mr. Pitcham from Britten's The Beggar's Opera. In Italy he made his debut in 2005 in the role of Colin from La Boheme and first performed the role of Raimondo from Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor in Spoleto. In 2006-2007 he participated in the Japanese tour of the Experimental Opera Theatre in Spoleto in the role of Don Basilio from Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville. In April, she made her debut on the stage of the Unter den Linden opera house in the role of Potapich from Sergei Prokofiev's opera The Gambler, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Plamen Kumpikov also performed this role on stage at the Scala di Milano, Italy. In 2009 he made his debut at the Sofia Opera and Ballet in the role of the Old Gypsy from Rachmaninov's opera Aleko under the baton of Emil Tabakov. He toured Belgium and the Netherlands in the roles of Sparafucile /Rigoletto/, Ramfis /Aida/, Zachariah /Nabouko/, Zarastro /The Magic Flute/, etc. In the 2012-2013 season he was a soloist of the Wroclaw Opera in Poland, where he performed the roles of Zachariah, Sparafucile, Commendatore and others. In 2015 he participated in the premiere performance of the avant-garde production of The Enchanted by Bozidar Spasov - a production of the Plovdiv Opera. In the summer of 2015 he was a guest at the Lake Herenheim Festival in Germany. On 5 December 2015 he performed the role of Raimondo in the premiere performance of Stara Zagora Opera's Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti.

The singer's repertoire also includes the roles of Pimen /"Boris Godunov" by Mussorgsky/, Seneca /"The Coronation of Poppea" by Monteverdi/, Lindorff and Copelius from "Hoffmann's Tales" by Offenbach/, Zuniga /"Carmen" by Bizet/, Nurabad /"Pearl Hunters" by Bizet/, Stolnik /"Halka" by Muñozhko/, Scoluba /"The Dreadful Court" by Muñozhko/, Ferrando /"Il trovatore" by Verdi/, Banquo /"Macbeth" by Verdi/, Uberto from "The Servant-Maid" by Pergolesi, the bass part from Verdi's Requiem and others. Since 2014 he has been a soloist of the Plovdiv Opera and since the 2015-2016 season - of the Stara Zagora Opera.

Ivan Kabamitov was born in Asenovgrad. In 1997 he graduated from the State Academy of Performing Arts "Pancho Vladigerov" , majoring in classical singing. He specialized at the Boris Hristov Academy of Art and Culture in Rome, and in 2005 he was a scholarship student at the Cijana Academy, where he graduated with a Diploma di Merito under Renato Bruzon. In 2013 he also completed a masterclass in French chamber music with teachers Emmanuel Cordolliani and Nicolas Chenot (French Curatorial Institute in Bulgaria). In 1996 she made her debut at the Varna Opera House in the role of Guglielmo from Mozart's Thus Do All Women. Next came the roles of Marcel in "Bohemi" - Teatro Vigano in Rome, Germont in "La Traviata" - Sofia Opera and Ballet. He participated in tours in Germany, England, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, USA, etc. in performances of "Il Trovatore", "Masque Ball", "Carmen", "Macbeth", "The Barber of Seville", "Aida", "Don Carlos", "Lucia di Lammermoor", "Madame Butterfly", etc. In the period 2002-2005 he took part in the festivals "Sofia Summer", Sofia Music Weeks, "Apollonia" and "Opperosa". He recorded opera and chamber repertoire for the Bulgarian National Radio. In 2008 he took part in the productions of Don Quixote and The Girl from the Golden West at the Sofia Opera and Ballet. He has won awards at the Boris Hristov International Competition for Young Opera Singers (2000), the Puldin International Competition for Opera Singers (2002), and the Silver Cup at the 25th Pyongyang International Festival of the Arts (2007). Founder and Chairman of the Foundation for Art and Culture "The Fire of Orpheus" (2007-2010), member of the Board of the Boris Hristov Association in Plovdiv. As a teacher, he leads and organizes master classes in opera singing at the Summer Academy of Art "The Fire of Orpheus" in Shiroka Luka and "Spring in the Old Town" in Plovdiv. He also receives high marks as a chamber performer. Since 2011 he has been a soloist at the State Opera Stara Zagora.

Lucia di Lamermour - video

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