A coverage from Zagreb by Miglena Stoicheva, BNT

Just eleven days before the solemn opening of season 2025/2026, the Sofia Opera is visiting the Croatian national theater. The troupe is going to present its production of “Die Walküre: a performance whose exalted reviews precede its “visit” in Zagreb.

Wagner fans from Europe and the USA have already highly praised acad. Plamen Kartaloff’s production. What’s more, some of those fans have seen it several timers in a row: when it was performed in Bulgaria as well as when it was performed abroad. This is why all tickets for “Die Walküre” are already completely sold out, weeks before the Sofia Opera’s arrival at the Croatian capital.

The Zagreb opera festival organizers comment that there is a truly impressive interest in the Bulgarian visit. What’s more, the opera “Die Walküre” by Richard Wagner hasn’t been performed in Croatia for more than twenty years and the new generation of opera lovers is practically going to see it for the first time, performed by the Sofia Opera and Ballet.

Yesterday, our ensemble had its first director’s rehearsal in Zagreb. The exceptionally beautiful theater is built in a neobaroque style by Vienna architects Ferdinand Fellner and Herman Helmer: true geniuses of their time who have designed many theaters in Central and Eastern Europe.

The unique atmosphere in the viewing hall filled the Sofia Opera artists with inspiration and helped them work with enthusiasm and dedication on adapting their production to the new stage which is significantly different in size compared to the one in Sofia. However, this won’t get in the way of the performance being shown in its full splendor to the Croatian audience, the Sofia Opera is confident.

Starring: Martin Iliev as Siegmund, Alma-Lisa Bandalovska as Sieglinde, Gergana Rusekova as Brunhilde, Olafur Sigurdarson as Wotan, Bjartni Thor as Hunding.

Liliya Kehayova will debut in the role of Frika.

Conductor: Evan-Alexis Christ.