On 19 and 20 November the company of the opera of Stara Zagora will be presenting Pagliacci under the tent of the Balkanski academic circus. The idea for this new production by the Stara Zagora State Opera belongs to renowned opera singer Kaludi Kaludov, who will be in the role of Canio, and the performance on 19 November will be dedicated to the 40^th anniversary of his first appearance in opera. The famed Bulgarian tenor, who has climbed the highest peaks of European and world opera, started out as a soloist of the Sofia Opera where he performed for 12 seasons. Ivaylo Krinchev, chief conductor of the opera of Stara Zagora will be conducting the shows.

“I have been toying with the idea for a long time, but it was only now that we were able to make it into a reality,” says Kaludi Kaludov. “Fortunately, Ognyan Draganov, manager and stage director of the Stara Zagora Opera House thought it a great idea. I put them in touch with the Balkanski academic circus, I myself will be on stage, performing. It is a really great show because the atmosphere at the circus is exactly the same as it was one hundred years ago. We first started rehearsing “at home” – at the opera house, and then – at the circus, so as to get accustomed to a different kind of space. As opera singers, we are used to seeing the audience in front of us and nowhere else, at the circus viewers are seated differently. This is something that creates a very different feeling in an artiste. As to my future plans, at the moment we are conducting negotiations with the same opera house for staging Verdi’s Othello. That is the dream role of any singer like myself who is gradually stepping down from big opera stages. I want to make my debut as Othello, to see how it works out and then we shall see. I am still lecturing actively, and my students are all very keen on seeing Pagliacci at the circus. The show in Sofia will be filmed and we are hoping to show it to our masterclasses. “Experiments” of this kind are only logical – times are much more dynamic, more active, there is so much more information all around, and people are interested in many more things than they used to.”

“A production like this has never been staged in Bulgaria, and only rarely in the world,” says on his part Ognyan Draganov. “We all know Cirque du Soleil which is more entertainment-oriented with its glittering shows. Staging an opera at the circus really is a challenge to all performers – on the opera and on the circus side. Anyone who has followed the work of our opera house will know that this is not the first time we have endeavoured to fuse different kinds of art. In March we had a premiere of Turandot together with the State Puppet Theatre of Stara Zagora. We have some outstanding performers taking part in Pagliacci in Sofia. On 19 November – Kaludi Kaludov, and on 20 November – the magnificent Bulgarian tenor Kamen Chanev with an exceptional career abroad. But also Alexander Krunev, Niko Isaev, Anna Ditri, Dessi Stefanova, Valery Turmanov, Georgi Dinev… It is such a pleasure to be working with circus artists, and the results are novel, invigorating for artists and audience. We were able to stage the production five times – in Stara Zagora, Varna and Plovdiv. Costume and set designers are Catalin Ionescu-Arbore from Romania and Salvatore Russo from Italy. I have been working with both for a long time and their names are frequently on the posters of the Stara Zagora opera. Circus acts are recurrent elements in this production. The two forms of art have evolved beyond recognition through the ages, and I had to decide how to make sure one didn’t dominate over the other. Laser shows, jugglers, clowns… They were all part of the story, within bounds, though nothing is done as an end in itself. Opera is in a difficult position anywhere in the world, with modern “fast food” forms sprouting all around. Opera people have been searching for new horizons, and this is, to my mind, one way to go about it.”

English version: Milena Daynova