Musical Horizons 7, 2023

PANORAMA

Wagner Festival of the Sofia Opera

Magdalena Manolova

On the green hill of Bayreuth, Richard Wagner's unique theatre, built to his design, was besieged every year by audiences from all over the world. Here, in the capital of wisdom, the Sofia Opera built the Bulgarian Wagner Temple, which since 2010 has been besieged by Wagner fans from all over the world.

Thirteen years after the creation of The Ring of the Nibelung, acclaimed not only by the Bulgarian but also by foreign audiences, Acad. Plamen Kartaloff has forged the new Ring with his Wagnerian artists and the ensemble of our first opera theatre that talks to our times.

A time in which humanity faces new challenges on a global scale. A time that asks many questions about the future, with no answers in sight.

I would remind you that the Ring of the Nibelung event 13 years ago attracted not only Richard Wagner admirers of all over the world, but also foreign critics. They predicted that, with its innovation and vitality, the production would become a cult in its own way, just as Götz Friedrich's had in Berlin in the mid-1980s.

Wagner's tetralogy, “Der Ring des Nibelungen”, is actually a tale with an age-old plot. It is a tale of stolen gold that has brought about the destruction of a world of universal harmony. The plot unfolds through the vicissitudes of “Das Rheingold”, “Die Walküre” and “Siegfried” and ends with the lost hope of the renewal of the world in “Götterdämmerung”.

This year's new production unfolds as a compelling psychological drama that unravels the plot of the myth in the language of surrealism, with references to modernity. Our modernity. Acad. Plamen Kartaloff, who guides us in the dynamics of dramaturgy, relies on the exceptional, developed in detail acting suggestion of each character, storyboard as a film. Hans Kudlich's scenography, in dialogue with this concept, leads us into a magical world, illusory, beyond time, that captivates the senses. The costume designer is Hristiana Mihaleva-Zorbalieva. The multimedia creates the feeling of three-dimensional film suggestion.

Loud applause and shouts of “bravo” did not cease for a long time at the premiere of this new production of “Der Ring des Nibelungen” and the subsequent performances of “Tristan und Isolde” and “Parsifal” by Richard Wagner. The audience, as if spellbound, did not want to leave the temple of the opera. Wagner admirers and critics from around the world once again filled the hall, becoming part of the pre-performance ritual in front of the building. It was an impressive historical event that leaves indelible traces in our technocratic world.

Acad. Kartaloff and his Wagnerian singers have forged this new reading of his tetralogy, which asks questions of the present time, a time of raging political storms and uncertainty about the present and the future. He says, “This is Wagner for everyone and anyone. Although Wagner's tetralogy is based on myth, it also has a socio-political undertone that tells an apocalyptic story of the enmity between different social groups that leads to the collapse of human society.” A thought that unfolds in the tetralogy in an evocative way, speaking to our times, evoking the audience's tumultuous reactions.

I would like to emphasize the extraordinary precision in the work of the conductor Constantin Trinks, who created with the orchestra and soloists every detail in the difficult score of each title with its specificity. Well done and congratulations to the orchestrators who, in a short space of time, withstood this gigantic ordeal.

In this new production, with new sets and concept, each of the artists had to meet Maestro Kartaloff's requirements in terms of character building and its suggestion. Here's what Maestro Kartaloff has to say about his new concept:

“My ideas started from the evocative and provocative power and moods of transformative images. From its intrinsic ability to reveal the meaning of the stage functions of three triskeles. From its energy fields. The role of these three geometric circular elements is to compose the space of the stage in the cycle of the tetralogy. They have the meaning of a kind of spiral of life in the four dramas of Wagner's tetralogy. They are the constructing blocks of the successive scenes of the action. They are the soul of the action and Wagner's characters are in a spiral of life, from birth, from the birth of their worlds, greatness and fall. Most importantly, they respond to the empathy of the cosmos of “Der Ring”. The circle, the square, the triangle, the variation forms give, build a series of successive scenes and situations in the musical and stage development.

A proper understanding of Wagner's verse melody is exceptionally important when working with artists. Wagner's theatre of instruments is expressed in the directing. A means of psychologically expressing the personality of the characters. The design of the artistic lighting is also an important factor in this overall structure.”

This in-depth understanding of Wagner's Ring holds the audience's attention, leading them into this mythological world, speaking intelligibly to the man of our technological age, in which the soul is increasingly in need of spiritual awakening.

In “Das Rheinegold”, Nikolay Petrov has created a convincing, imposing Wotan vocally and as an actor. The same applies to Mariana Zvetkova as Fricka, and to the rich palette of suggestion of the various characters – Plamen Dimitrov's Alberich and Daniel Ostretsov's Loge, Krasimir Dinev's Mime, Petar Buchkov's Fafner, Stefan Vladimirov's Fasolt, Svetozar Rangelov's Donner, Hrisimir Damyanov's Froh.

Guest Thomas Hall's Wotan in “Die Walküre” stood out vocally and in his acting with the rich palette of nuances in the character matching the psychology of this character. Martin Iliev's Siegmund, Gergana Rusekova's Brünnhilde and Tsvetana Bandalovska's Sieglinde are memorable.

Kostadin Andreev's Siegfried was remarkable, rich in nuance not only vocally but especially in the acting. Krisztián Cser's Stranger, Plamen Dimitrov's Alberich, Krasimir Dinev's Mime, Petar Buchkov's Fafner and Radostina Nikolaeva's Brünnhilde were all impressive in the portrayal of their characters.

In “Götterdämmerung” Plamen Dimitrov's Alberich, Atanas Mladenov's Gunther, Martin Iliev's Siegfried, Petar Buchkov's Hagen, Iordanka Derilova's Brünnhilde, Tsvetana Bandalovska's Gutrune caused the audience's unceasing applause. Iordanka Derilova's Brünnhilde was memorable, remarkable for the richly nuanced vocal and acting expression of her character in various situations.

This historic event will go down in opera history as a true feat. It also affirms the necessity of art in times of spiritual crisis, and recalls Richard Wagner's thought that “opera is not entertainment but a temple for significant ideas of humanity”, as well as Picasso's thought that “art is a loaded weapon of the future”.