"The opera hall is my home and I consider it a healthy home." With these words begins our conversation with choreographer from Croatia Leo Mujić. Internationally acclaimed with numerous awards in his field, Mujić has choreographed works for a number of ballet companies in Europe's most renowned theatres and schools. He was trained at the École-Atelier Rudra Béjart in Lausanne.
The choreographer does not want to talk about where he was born and what provoked his love for ballet. Instead, he readily shares that his work is his whole being and what defines him.
"I feel very comfortable in opera halls. It's a hidden part of the world that exists to complement the world outside. I create spectacles not for the dancers, not even for the people who like ballet. I do it for the people who are coming to a performance for the first time. If you capture that person's interest and they come back, then I've done my job," Mujić says.
At first glance, the Croatian is a typical artist – with a very bright presence and even more talent. He claims that behind the artistic veneer is a consistent and punctual person. According to him, the success of his performances is due to this.
"I know exactly what effect I want to achieve. Sometimes dancers live out their feelings on stage, but that's not their job there. Their job is to evoke those feelings in the audience. I choose the costumes, the set design, the lighting and the music very meticulously. My goal is to achieve complete harmony between these elements. I am not artistic, I have a mathematical mind. I know the limits of my profession and what it takes to sell my product," Mujić points out.
Last season the Bulgarian audience enjoyed "Anna Karenina" under his direction, and this spring will be the premiere of "The Great Gatsby".
The prima ballerina Marta Petkova and the premier soloist Nikola Hadjitanev will again be together on stage in this production. Petkova plays the role of Daisy Buchanan: "It's a very whimsical image, but I think all the characters in the spectacle are very vivid and very colourful. Because of that, the story reads very accurately and that's important for our audience to understand everything."
Petkova describes Mujić as an exceptional and intelligent person: "Working with him passes in one breath, although it lasts 7-8 hours a day. Work and work – nothing else passes with him. You work around the clock and it really raised the level of the whole company. Working with him has helped a lot," says the prima ballerina
The premiere of "The Great Gatsby" is on 12 April at the Sofia Opera.