Ladies and gentlemen!
Dear audience!
On the eve of the new year of 2026, the Sofia Opera and Ballet made an overview of the year.
The full to the brim halls, the constant interest in our performances and the inspiring reviews are a clear sign that you, our viewers, support us with dedication and experience every performance together with us. This inspires us and gives us strength to continue our mission: to expand the boundaries of art, to keep discovering new stages and spaces, to create and present new titles and to reach new audiences.
Here’s what we accomplished in 2025:
- We worked together with one of the biggest opera stars: Asmik Grigoryan, singer of the year, 2025; the Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat; the exceptional maestro Daniel Oren; the remarkable singers Jessica Pratt, Alexander Vinogradov, Gregory Kunde, Kristine Opolais, Liparit Avetisyan, Stefan Pop, Magnus Vigilius, Maria Jose Siri, Claudio Zgura; conductors Konstantin Trinks, Evan-Alexis Christ, Grigor Palikarov, Boyan Videnov, Francesco Rosa, Alexandra Lyubchanski; director Marco Gandini; costume designer Anna Biagiotti; scenographers Italo Grassi and Sven Jonke; choreographer Kaloyan Boyadzhiev; ballet dancers Maria Kochetkova, Daniil Simkin, Kale Wiggle, Michal Krčmář, Guilherme Alves. Our guests were the opera singers Nicholas Burns, Federica Guida, Anna Werle, Thomas Hall, Tsvetelina Vasileva, Jorge de Leon, Alexandrina Mihailova, Christian Cher, Mila Mihova, Lucio Gallo, Kiril Manolov, Mariana Pencheva, Plamen Dimitrov, Yordanka Derilova, Bjartni Thor Christinson, Niina Keitel, Zurab Zurabishvili, Marina Shahdinarova, Amadi Laga, Emanuel Asler, Rose Naggar-Tremblay, Karoline Podolak, Reinaldo Droz, Alexandar Krunev, Maria Radoeva.
- We opened our doors for the Croatian National opera in Zagreb for their visit with the opera “Lennon” by Ivo Josipovic.
- The Sofia Opera’s cultural diplomacy continued with tours with “Die Walküre” by Richard Wagner in Salerno, Italy, and in Zagreb; with “Elektra” by Richard Strauss in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and in Istanbul, Turkey; with the “Zorba the Greek” ballet on the island of Crete, Greece. This year, we again took part in the prestigious national opera and ballet art festival in Stara Zagora and closed it with a performance of “Tannhäuser” by Richard Wagner.
- Plamen Kartaloff added the ninth Wagner title to our repertoire: “Tannhäuser”, with which the 2025 Wagner festival opened. The festival was visited by viewers from Bulgaria, Poland, the USA, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, France, Turkey, Macedonia, Japan, Spain, the UK, Germany, Sweden.
- For the first time in Bulgaria, the musical “Matilda” by Tim Minchin was set; director: Yuliya Krasteva.
- Gabriela Georgieva won the 2024 “Musician of the year” award and Kostadin Andreev received the “Emil Chakarov” award.
- The Sofia Opera ballet ensemble won the 2025 “Impulse” award in the “Dance production of the year” category for the “Romeo and Juliet” performance, score by Sergei Prokofiev. The young ballet dancer Simeon Atanasov deservedly won the “Male classic dance performer of the year” award.
- The award for “Production of a classical piece or an adaptation of an existing dance piece” was won by Kaloyan Boyadzhiev for his choreography and directorship of “Romeo and Juliet”.
- In the newly-founded club “Opera”, we organized a series of matinees titled “Wagner up close” as well as many other events, lectures and concerts.
- We celebrated World opera and ballet day with specially prepared video materials.
- We organized many behind the scenes tours for Bulgarians and foreigners.
- We performed many shows in different kindergartens by their invitation as well as on different stages outside the Sofia Opera.
- Many organizations, universities and schools held concerts and other events on the Sofia Opera stage.
- We continued our good partnership with the Bulgarian national television. In May, BNT aired “Lohengrin” by Richard Wagner on three consecutive evenings and in June BNT recorded the premiere of the opera “Tannhäuser” which will air in 2026. Since December, the “Ot parviya red” show dedicated to the Sofia Opera has a slot on the BNT2 programme.
- This year, five brand new trombones were purchased for the Sofia Opera orchestra from the leading world brand “Antoine Courtois”.
- The Sofia Opera and Ballet took part in the worldwide campaign “Light It Up Gold!” dedicated to increasing awareness on children with cancer. The Sofia Opera building was lit up in gold light in a display of dedication and support for the children afflicted with the malicious disease and their families, friends and close ones.
- We started a new campaign titled #ВСърцетоНаОперата in which famous influencers experience a part of our artists’ everyday life.
Repertoire:
“The Magic Flute”, “The Great Gatsby”, “The Sound of Music”, “La Boheme”, “Tosca”, “Turandot”, “La Traviata”, “Carmen”, “Cinderella”, “Madama Butterfly”, “Rigoletto”, “The Hermit of Rila”, “Cavalleria Rusticana”, “Pagliacci”, “Don Pasquale”, “Swan Lake”, “Le Corsaire”, “Lohengrin”, “Elektra”, “Ana Karenina”, “The Sleeping Beauty”, “Das Rheingold”, “Die Walküre”, “Siegfried”, “Götterdämmerung”, “The Nutcracker”, “Zorba the Greek”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Adriana Lecouvreur”, “Carmina Burana”, “La Bayadere”, “Falstaff”, “Tannhäuser”, “Giselle”, “Coppélia”, “Les Miserables”, “Matilda”, “Mamma Mia!”, “The Green Bird”, “The Peach Thief”.
Children’s repertoire:
“The Ugly Duckling”, “The Lost Princess”, “Concerts for Babies”, “The Three Little Pigs”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids”, “Winnie the Pooh”, “Shegobishko on the Island of Miracles”, “The Animal Carnaval” as well as the following operas, adapted for children: “The Magic Flute” and “Das Rheingold”, the musical “Bashta mi boyadzhiyata” and the ballets “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty”.
Here's how our 2025 looks in numbers:
- Total performances for the year – 284
- Viewers: over 135 000
- Six premieres:
“Falstaff”, “Tannhäuser”, “Cavalleria Rusticana”, “Pagliacci”, “Matilda”, “The Ugly Duckling”
- Four festivals:
Wagner festival – six performances, total number of viewers – 3997
“Muses on the Water” at Pancharevo Lake – twenty performances, total number of viewers – 16 127
“Opera at the Park”, “G.S. Rakovski” Military academy – twenty performances, total number of viewers – 3575
“Opera at the Square”, “St. Alexander Nevsky” square – thirteen performances, total number of viewers – 12 354
The Sofia Opera and Ballet’s social media presence continued throughout this year. We have 54 000 followers on Facebook, 19 400 followers on Instagram and 7850 followers on Tik Tok. The Sofia Opera communication channels are followed by dozens of people in Bulgaria and abroad.
All these performances, concerts and events wouldn’t have been possible without our amazing lead singers, ballet troupe, choir, orchestra, directors, co-tutors, stage staff, assistant directors, art studios, makeup artists, cloakroom attendants and our administration (directorate, management, marketing and sales, PR, graphic design, translators).
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Dear friends,
This is our overview of the past year of 2025.
We’re looking forward to spending 2026 together and sharing our inspiration and love for opera, ballet, musicals, chamber concerts and children’s performances.
We wish you good health, prosperity and success throughout 2026.
Yours,
The Sofia Opera and Ballet