Sofia Opera and Ballet with the premiere tonight of " Valkyrie" by Richard Wagner on the stage of the National Opera and Ballet in Skopje, under the direction of Academician Plamen Kartalov, BNT reported.
The event is part of the May opera evenings in the capital of the Republic of North Macedonia.
The newly elected President of the Republic of North Macedonia, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, was also present at the event. She met with the director of the Sofia Opera Academician Plamen Kartalov and expressed her joy at the event.
This is the first performance of a work by the great German composer on the stage of the National Opera and Ballet in Skopje and the first visit of the Sofia Opera and Ballet there.
The nearly five-hour production of Valkyrie began with a packed hall and enthusiastic spectators, for whom the challenge of seeing live the most popular opera of the tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelungen" is a huge inspiration.
The director of the National Opera and Ballet in Skopje Vaso Ristov did not hide from the media that this is a truly significant event in the cultural life here, a privilege for him as the head of the opera and for the audience.
134 people make up the composition with which the Sofia Opera is visiting Skopje.
"We are very happy that thanks to the support of both the Ministries of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia, and the BCIC in Skopje, we have the opportunity to welcome the Sofia Opera and Ballet with this huge production, which is the pinnacle of the overall program of the May opera evenings", said Antonia Veleva - director of BKIC.
For maestro Plamen Kartalov, visiting Skopje is the fulfillment of a long-standing dream, which became a reality thanks to his long-standing friendship with his colleague Vaso Ristov.
"I am very inspired because the journey of the Bulgarian Wagner finds a new stop on the world opera scene. After Slovenia, the Bolshoi Theater, twice Germany, it is an honor for us to be guests at the May opera evenings in Skopje and in this way to open a new page for the opera culture of Skopje", said Academician Plamen Kartalov.
Conductor Evan, who has been working side by side with maestro Kartalov for three years, is confident that the audience here will fall in love with Richard Wagner, as well as himself.
"Although the play is more than 4 hours long, at the end I always wish it wouldn't end. The soloists have exceptional voices and are brilliantly trained in German," said Evan-Alexis Christ.
Wagner's language is not complicated. It becomes dangerous to understand when making theater that imitates modernity today. And in this performance Maestro Kartalov says that he is looking for a fantasy that is based entirely on Wagner's music, and it is the music of the future.