Voice of the Gods and the Elements

by Petar PLAMENOV

14 April (Thursday) 2011

DIE WALKÜRE OPERA BY WAGNER-PREMIERE
Start:18.00 h
DIE WALKÜRE
 
Next performances
17, 20, 23, 27 and 30 April 2011

Address:
Sofia, 1 Vrabcha Str.
Phone: 02 987 13 66


Conductor PAVEL BALEFF
Director PLAMEN KARTALOFF
Set and Costume Designer - NIKOLAY PANAYOTOV
Musical Training -RICHARD TRIMBORN, VELIZAR GENCHEV - conductor /27, 30 April 2011/
Multimedia Director - Vera Petrova
Artistic Lighting - Andrey Hazhdinyak, Emil Dinkov
Assistant Stage Directors-Vera Petrova, Yulia Krasteva


Characters and cast:
SIEGMUND
MARTIN ILIEV, DANIEL DAMYANOV,
HUNDING
АNGEL HRISTOV, PETAR BUCHKOV
WOTAN
NIKOLAY PETROV, APOSTOL MILENKOV
SIEGLINDE
TSVETANA BANDALOVSKA, ANETA BARANOVSKA
BRÜNHILDE
MARIANA ZVETKOVA, BAYASGALAM DASHNYAM
FRICKA
RUMYANA PETROVA, АNDREANA NIKOLOVA, DIANA GENOVA
VALKYRIES 
MILENA GYUROVA 
IRINA ZHEKOVA 
LYUBOV METODIEVA





After a very successful and spectacular staging of "Das Rheingold" in staging Plamen Kartalov, this season Sofia National Opera continues with the premiere of the second opera of the tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelungen " by Richard Wagner "Die Walkure" (The Valkyrie). Here's an interesting fact is that these so popular opera works are placed for the first time on the Bulgarian stage almost a hundred years after their creation.

Wagner's work does not present the audience with "easy listening", and not just because the Ring cycle of four operas takes 15 hours to perform. Most would agree with George Bernard Shaw, who was an admirer of Wagner, when he said that his operas contained "some sublime moments but some terrible half hours". The modern music lover also has to dissociate Wagner's music from the reputation of one of his greatest fans, namely Adolf Hitler, although one cannot escape the fact that the operas are intensely Germanic.

The Ring cycle turns to the human sphere with Die Walküre, highlighted by some of Wagner's most memorable music, with such highlights as the rousing "Ride of the Valkyries". This is the second of the four operas that make up the Ring Cycle. Wagner does not tell the whole story on stage, and for a full understanding of what is going on, it is necessary to know a little background detail.

Wotan is concerned that the gods are under threat, because they have lost control of the ring made from the Rhine-maidens' gold. He has therefore created an elite defence force of Valkyries, who are warrior maidens whose duty is to convey to Valhalla, on their winged steeds, the bodies of the noblest warriors who have been slain in battle. There they will live again to fight on behalf of the gods.

Oh, and another something you should know - in the interval since Das Rheingold  Wotan has begotten two kids of his own, brother and sister Siegmund and Sieglinde, who have grown into adulthood in ignorance of each other's existence.



Richard Wagner was born on 22nd May 1813 in Leipzig and died on 13 February 1883 in Venice. He wrote very little that was not an opera, the most notable exception being the delightful "Siegfried Idyll" that he composed as a birthday present for his wife. After a few false starts, his operatic output was prodigious, with the ten massive operas written after 1843 being regularly performed and recorded today. He was unusual among operatic composers in that he produced the whole package, libretto as well as music. He even went one step further and built an opera house in which his works could be performed. For Wagner, the orchestra was as important as the singers, and he referred to his works as "music dramas".

 

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