On 14, 15 and 16 May, the Sofia Opera and Ballet will present the premiere of the ballet “Tango” by the Argentinian musician Astor Piazzolla, whose anniversary we marked on 11 March. Piazzolla was born in 1921 in Buenos Aires. Still at the age of 18, he joined the orchestra of Aníbal Troilo, which was among the most famous tango orchestras of all time. With his composition “Buenos Aires” from 1953, Piazzolla set the beginning of an era in tango. Piazzolla’s new tango includes elements of jazz, uses widened harmonies and dissonance, looks for counterpoint and embarks on long composition forms. Astor Piazzolla introduced new instruments, which were not used in traditional tango, among which flute, saxophone, electric guitar, electronic instruments and a full set of jazz-rock drums.
The choreographer of the ballet “Tango” Svetlin Ivelinov points out the most characteristic for the production:
“A sudden, unexpected, touching impulse: passion, power, love. A love, stirring up expectations, opening a way – unsuspected and unknown. Events follow, evoked by desires for resistance and irreconcilability, inevitably influenced by real and supernatural images, interweaved into the web of life.”
The ballet “Tango” is under the patronage of H.E. Alfredo Néstor Atanasof, ambassador of the Argentine Republic in Bulgaria. About the ballet “Tango” he shares:
“I think that the word “magic” defines the Tango most exactly. The dance appeared around 1800, in the poorest and most unfriendly regions of Buenos Aires. They were inhabited mainly by Argentinians, but by people of African, Indian and Caribbean origin too. There were also big waves of settlers of Europeans, who came in Argentina later, but as of this moment they were present. And then tango turned into a peculiar reflection of the life of those, who were inhabiting Buenos Aires. I think that exactly therein is the magic of tango and this is why it attracts us so much. In the attitude of the Bulgarian audience I feel a great interest in Argentinean culture and more specially in tango. In Bulgaria there are a lot of schools, in which is taught tango, and there are musicians, who play tango.
Consequently, I consider that the ballet TANGO will be a real cultural event, and we, Argentinians, shall be forever grateful that so far away from our motherland you will pay honour to a composer from the importance of Astor Piazzolla.”
In “Tango” take part:
Marta Petkova, Kristina-Chochanova-Ivanova, Nikola Hadzhitanev, John Abenanty, Boryana Petrova, Venera Hristova, Emil Yordanov, Tsetso Ivanov,
Aleksandar Aleksandrov, Kristian Manev, Nikola Arnaudov, Sofia Tsutsakova-Abenanty, Vyara Ivancheva, Milena Todorova, Elena Petrova, Mina-Vasilia Stoyanova,
Teodor Vodenicharov, Georgi Asparuhov, Georgi Banchev
Artistic Director of the Ballet: Sara=Nora Krysteva
Production team:
Assistant Choreographer – Antoaneta Aleksieva, Set Designer – Boris Stoynev, Costume Designer – Hristiana Mihaleva-Zorbalieva, Repetiteurs – Maria Ilieva, Yasen Valchanov, Trifon Mitev