Premiere of Stara Zagora Opera Ballet
News публикувана на: 01.02.2017
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"Romeo and Juliet" and "Flight to the Light" on the Stara Zagora State Opera stage
On 28 February at 19.00 on the stage of the Stara Zagora Opera will be presented the two one-act ballets "Romeo and Juliet" to music by P. И. Tchaikovsky and "FLIGHT TO THE LIGHT" to music by Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, Masne, Piazzolla, Rossini. Sylvia Tomova, the director of the Stara Zagora Opera Ballet, chose the date 28 February, which is considered the birthday of the Bulgarian professional ballet, especially for the premiere. For the first time on 28 February 1928 a ballet was staged on the Bulgarian stage - it was Leo Delibes' Coppélia.
The choreography of the two ballets is by the prima ballerina Silvia Tomova, the sets and costumes are the work of the inimitable world-famous artist from Italy Salvatore Russo, who staged with great success and many times in the largest opera houses in Italy and around the world.
The story of Romeo and Juliet has been told and retold, loved and sought after, rediscovered and retold over time. And everyone seems to have their expectations....
This time, Tchaikovsky's fantastic Romeo and Juliet Overture comes to life. Many composers have responded with their music to the timeless themes of Shakespeare's drama of forbidden youthful love, but Tchaikovsky, along with Prokofiev and Berlioz, tops the list. At a time when Tchaikovsky had not yet established himself as a composer, Mily Balakirev, who identifies himself as a mentor to Russian composers, commissioned him to write a symphonic work on this theme. After the premiere performance of the work /1869/ Balakirev advised the composer to revise it. This happened in 1880. In the first version, Tchaikovsky begins with a tender love melody, which is subsequently dropped. In the composer's fantasy, Juliet appears as a little girl, whose image is developed and traced in the musical text. In the revised version, the fantasy overture begins with Padre Lorenzo's prayer and all events seem to have already happened. The story of the feuding clans is preserved in both versions.
The choreographer Silvia Tomova draws on this idea. The ballet Romeo and Juliet begins with the blessing of Padre Lorenzo, who already knows everything....As in the legendary film by Zeffirelli, the characters from Shakespeare's drama are arranged on stage - the picture is so impressive that for a moment the spectator forgets that he is attending a ballet performance. The soloists in the roles of Romeo and Juliet are like reborn characters from Romanticism - tender, young, so pure in their love. Costume designer Salvatore Russo masterfully recreates the authenticity of the era in every detail. And the dancing is expressive, virtuosic, argumentative in every movement. Silvia Tomova accentuates the psychological development of the characters skillfully and thoroughly. Throughout her conception, she incorporates the philosophical search of rejected young people who do not accept the limitations of prejudice.
"Romeo and Juliet's desire to break free from these norms meets them. Everyone finds something or someone in their escape....But they are children, still children! Their encounter is a passion, unconscious but real...They are searching for their truth, searching for the love for which they are willing to do anything - even stand in the face of death....Everyone has the right to choose, even in love! Their rebelliousness and unwillingness to reconcile also overturns the notions of adults, self-absorbed in their artificial ostentation and false virtue...Why should we appreciate love only when we lose it..."
The ballet Romeo and Juliet does not have a sad ending...Anyone can imagine what will happen next.
In the second part of the ballet evening, the audience will experience another real delight for the senses with the performance FLIGHT TO THE LIGHT. Different colours of the rainbow are incorporated in the fabulously beautiful costumes, selected music from Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Massenet, Piazzolla, Gershwin will sound in unison with all the dance sensuality of the show, ethereal movements and different dance techniques will catch the attention and allow the audience to drift away in the flight of their fantasies. Red, blue, green, yellow, white, black, the visible and invisible colors of our soul.
Sylvia Tomova: "The performance FLIGHT TO LIGHT is conceived as a message of self-discovery, rediscovering our strengths and getting closer to nature. The colours of the rainbow, like the colours of the chakras, embody the natural matrix, the energies and the universe around us. Through dance and music, those sublime values are represented that we cannot touch every moment. Falling into the magic of the performance, the movement reveals the meaning of life and the music gives us a supernatural feeling, transporting us to another dimension..."
The scenery and costumes in the premiere performances of Romeo and Juliet and A Flight to the Light are by the Rousse Opera, the performances feature the entire international troupe of the Stara Zagora State Opera.