Photo: Olya Al-Ahmed
Amartuvshin Enkhbat is the leading baritone in the world today, maestro Kartaloff shared. The performance itself flows like a fairytale, like a drama film, the director added.
The wild applause and thunderous “Bravo!” shouts brought joy to the artists after each encore.
This is how the first of the two performances of “Rigoletto” went: with the exalted impressions of the multinational audience in the full Sofia Opera hall.
Some more information on the artists who turned this performance into a true holiday for the soul:
The lead singers
Amartuvshin Enkhbat, one of the most sought after baritones today, made his Sofia Opera debut in “Rigoletto”. He is praised for his “gorgeously rich, dark, silky smooth and powerful voice”. He performs on the biggest opera stages in the world such as “La Scala”, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Royal Opera in London, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Bavarian Staatsoper, the National opera “Unter den Linden” and the Berlin Staatsoper, the Rome Opera, Arena di Verona etc.
With the role of Rigoletto, Enkhbat achieved his big break, debuting under the conductorship of Nelo Santi at the “San Carlo” theater in Naples. This role is now iconic for him.
This summer, he enjoyed a sensational success at the “Arena di Verona” festival, in performances of “Nabucco”, “La Traviata”, “Aida” and “Rigoletto”. The new season for Enkhbat began with “Rigoletto”: first at San Francisco and after that, at “La Scala”. He also performed in “Nabucco” in Bonn and “Aida” at the Paris opera. Immediately after, he arrived in Sofia for “Rigoletto”, on the 7th and 9th of November. This year, he will also take part in “Ernani” in Verona and in “Nabucco” in Salerno: a production by Plamen Kartaloff with conductor Daniel Oren.
The young Italian soprano Federica Guida performed as Gilda: this was her debut on our stage as well. In 2021, she debuted at “La Scala” as Despina in “Così fan tutte” by Mozart as well as Gilda in “Rigoletto” at “Teatro Antico” in Taormina, together with Stefan Pop and Leo Nucci, the latter also being the production’s director, under the conductorship of Placido Domingo. Her career enjoyed a continuous success in the following seasons on stages in Buenos Aires, Torino, Palermo, Koln and Vienna.
The Romanian tenor Stefan Pop is well known to our audience from his performances in “Tosca” by Puccini with which this year’s season opened.
Starring in “Rigoletto” on the 7th and 9th of November: Svetozar Rangelov, Alexandrina Stoyanova-Andreeva, Dimitar Stanchev, Angel Hristov, Atanas Mladenov, Angel Antonov, Silvana Pravcheva, Alexandar Georgiev, Maria Radoeva, the Sofia Opera orchestra and choir; choir conductor: Violeta Dimitrova.
Francesco Rosa helmed the Sofia Opera orchestra this night due to a sudden indisposition of his colleague Daniel Oren who was supposed to conduct this performance. The orchestra’s performance was impressive, regardless of the force majeur change.
History of this production
The current production of “Rigoletto” first premiered on the 18th of February, 2005, under the patronage of mister Koichiro Fukui: emergency and full-fledged ambassador of Japan in Bulgaria. In October that same year, the Sofia Opera was invited to tour in Japan for the third time, with this production.
Reviews of “Rigoletto”
“Director Plamen Kartaloff remains loyal to Verdi yet seeks his own contemporary interpretation of the opera. He bets on fully revealing the protagonists’ character, on sinking them into an ocean of passion, collecting expressively human dramas and alienating said protagonists during the finale. Together with the scenographer and the costume designer, he takes viewers into the Renaissance era, while at the same time the piece is full of contemporary references. The Renaissance man, free of all middle-age dogmas, is obsessed by the passion to live, to make love and to have fun with no restraints. Human passions and emotions are at the forefront here…”, Magdalena Manolova wrote.
“Work on stage visualization began amidst a completely different stage production where the scale of realization is akin to the detailed chamber fragmentation which reveals all ideological and philosophical postulates engrained into Hugo’s drama and Verdi’s score. As a result, a new product was born, a “phenomenon”: a new take on Verdi’s timeless genius work where unity was achieved on stage, in the dramaturgical acting dressed in music resulting in a unison influence over the audience. This is a performance in which the story unfolds almost cinematically and its dynamics reflect the director’s concept… my impression is the following: an accomplished performance, both sound and story wise, set according to contemporary opera stylistics”, Bozhidar Gatev added.
“Rigoletto” is a performance with a clear director’s, scenographer’s and performer’s concept. The main production principle is an escape from banal opera fakery. Impressions are achieved through details, the cinematographic approach, shadow theater elements, changes in lighting… Kartaloff manages to bring out the best of the performers’ singing and acting skills”, Avgusta Manoleva noted.
Olya AL-AHMED