Under the stars, the art of opera theater enters a new form of existence: as romantic as the magnificent splendor of a castle’s interior. There is something truly attractive in setting such a type of opera. The square has always been the most important place for any town; as far back as the Middle Ages, the Church has set its traditional mysterious performances precisely at the town square. The annotation of “Opera and Nature”: a three-tome project, focuses on this. The book came out the beginning of this week. In it, a fateful selection of opera performances by director Plamen Kartaloff are included. His compositions carry the essence of opera might, the emotional impact of performances with an innovative vision set among nature and an interpretation of opera dramaturgy.
The development of the idea of opera symbiosis: nature, photos, professional reviews and a rich gamut of materials for all productions performed on “Tsarevets” hill, at “Alexander Batenberg” square, at the “Georgi Sava Rakovski” Military academy park and at the square in front of the “St. Alexander Nevsky” cathedral all fill the book’s contents. It integrates brilliant productions set over the course of more than fifty years, represented in an expressive and accessible way.
The vital importance of the idea of the future of opera lies in the creation of a marketing strategy for securing the broadest possible access for audiences which visit the opera for the first time: at places where opera meets nature; thus states a thesis in the book regarding art management.
Plamen Kartaloff: Bulgarian opera director and professor at the Music academy in Sofia, teaches directorship and acting. He is also an academician at the Bulgarian academy of sciences and has participated in many European conferences focusing on creative and organizational problems in opera theater. He has been a jury member in international contests for young opera singers and created the Bulgarian Academy of art and culture in Rome, together with Boris Hristov.
A contemporary theater’s mission is to move forward with new ideas, initiatives, innovative methods and mainly: to attract new young audiences who in turn attract other audiences, another part of “Opera and Nature” underlines.