The documentary exhibition “Opera and Ballet Art in Ruse – Traditions and Future” briefly traces the 75-year history of our opera theater through emblematic productions from its inception in 1949 to the present day. The exhibition also highlights the growing interest in opera in Ruse, which began in the 1870s, up to the milestone 2024/2025 season—covering a wide chronological span of three centuries of history. As a result of the digitization of the Artistic Archive, for the first time opera enthusiasts are presented with each production in its entirety, including photographs, posters, programs, set and costume sketches—that is, the entire creative team of performers, directors, conductors, designers, dramaturgs, costume designers, and studio specialists. Through this rich archive, we have aimed to capture the invisible dynamics that began with the earliest devoted opera enthusiasts at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and culminated in the establishment of the Opera Theater, where a diverse audience, holding its breath in the auditorium, experienced the inner connection and talent of the performers in productions such as La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, Don Pasquale, The Bartered Bride, La Bohème, The Puppet Fairy, The Pearl Fishers, Rigoletto, and Scheherazade. The early years were marked by the prominent creative presence of young, talented conductors and founders of the orchestra, Konstantin Iliev and Dobrin Petkov; the wisdom and experience of director Dragan Kudrziev and opera prima Elisaveta Yovovich; ballet pedagogue Patsy Bogatinova; choreographers Ana Voroblova, Asen Manolov, and Mercedes Pavelić; and choral conductors Boris Pintev, Iliya Iliev, and Nikolay Nikolaev. In the 1950s, a production team from the Bucharest Opera, led by director Ion Rănzescu, visited the Ruse stage for the first time and created the productions Carmen and Aida. Equally important for the professional development of local opera artists were the guest performances on the Ruse stage by world-renowned artists such as Elena Nikolai, Rayna Kabaivanska, Nicolai Ghiaurov, and Dmitri Shostakovich.
For the first time, the exhibition includes the latest scholarly research – showing how the Church Hall was transformed into the Opera Theater, who the first orchestral musicians, choristers, and ballet dancers were, and the role of the Bulgarian opera Gergana, performed in the 1930s, in the creation of the Ruse Opera, among other insights.
Dr. Veselina Antonova
State Opera Ruse and the “European Center of Culture” present a documentary exhibition
OPERA AND BALLET ART IN RUSE – TRADITIONS AND FUTURE
on 09 of Oc.2025 at 5:30 PM
at the “Philharmonic” Hall – foyer.
The project is implemented with the financial support of the Municipality of Ruse under the “CULTURE” PROGRAM for funding events and projects in the field of arts and culture.
