Tonight, a presentation of the ballet Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky opens this year’s Sofia Opera in the Park summer festival. At two open-air stages in the lovely park of the Military Academy in the capital city ballet shows and shows for children are on until 27 July. In the meantime, the opera house is hosting its summer playbill of opera productions indoors.

The festival’s organizers from the Sofia Opera and the Municipality of Sofia are looking forward to crowds of music fans not only from the city but also guests and tourists keen to watch quality shows in the open air.

Shows for children are on at weekends, starting from 11 am. They come from the children’s classical repertoire: Hansel and Gretel, Winnie the Pooh, the Little Red Riding Hood, Grumpy Goat and the Magic Flute. The Sofia Opera House has been lovingly fostering young audiences for years. Apart from eight children’s titles, there are eleven ballet shows too.

Sara-Nora Krasteva from the ballet company says more on the festival:

„We have selected the most popular titles but also ones that are suitable for the natural setting in the Park. Most of Swan Lake and Giselle acts are set in a forest. Weather is also important, and we hope it will be fine! By way of a joke, instead of wishing ourselves ‘Good Riddance’ we say ‘Sail with the Wind’. In the art of ballet balance is of key importance and we hope that there won’t be strong wind in the park. Anyway, the open stage is very beautiful and it is a great pleasure to dance there.”

In the meantime, the ballet company of the Sofia Opera is rehearsing for its appearance at the Stage of Centuries festival at the Tsarevets Hill in Veliko Tarnovo and at the Apollonia Festival of Arts in the Black Sea town of Sozopol.

English Daniela Konstantinova