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Stara Zagora is a town with old musical traditions from the middle of the 19-th century. All that time church and secular choirs were greeted and drama performances with music accompaniment took place. After the liberation from ottoman yoke these traditions enriched.In 1897 a musical society "Kaval" was established, with a male choir, a female choir and a mixed choir. They had rich concert activities. As a result of this rich musical life a group of enthusiasts had the idea by their own efforts to put up an opera performance. Several concerts of the "Kaval" society with parts of different operas preceded the first opera performance "Gergana" by Maestro Atanassov.

First Opera House in Bulgaria was build 1925 in Stara Zagora. It have 350 Seats. The opening premiere of the Bulgarian national opera "Gergana" in the Year 1925 laid the beginning of the opera of Stara Zagora. Its creation few years after the foundation of Sofia's opera was a real cultural phenomenon for the country. After the successful performances of "Gergana" the enthusiasts of Stara Zagora put up "Il Trovatore" by Verdi, "The Barber of Seville" by Rossini and "Tosca" by Puccini. An important moment of the opera’s history was the year 1946 when the state undertook the expenses of the opera because of its contribution to national culture.

The new conditions gave the opera the possibility to enrich the number of its members and to have more serious opera titles from the Europian and Slavonic classical operas "Carmen" by Bizet, "A sold bride" by Smetana, "Mermaid" by Dargomizski, "Le Bohemè" by Puccini, "Prince Igor" by Borodin, "Der Freischutz" by Weber and many others. During the period many talented singers, chorus members and young musicians came to State Opera Stara Zagora. The repertoire enlarged, with Italian classical operas and works of contemporary composers: "Un ballo in mascera", "Don Carlos" and "Simone Boccanegra" by Verdi, "Manon Lescaut" by Puccini, "A short novel for the real man" by Prokoffiev, "Ero from the other world" by Gotovatz, "Hornet" by Spadavecchia.
Many Bulgarian operas was written especially for State Opera Stara Zagora and came to life on the stage in Stara Zagora. Because of the biggest Opera and Ballet Festival in Bulgaria (since 1947), 1971 just 200 meter from the Old Opera House was build a new one. The New Opera with 800 Seats, two side and one backstage, modern technical equipment, was the biggest modern opera house on the Balkans and gave the possibility for performances with great significance "Aida" by Verdi, "The Flying Dutchman" by Wagner, "Boris Godunov" by Mussorgsky, "The Force of the Fate" by Verdi, "A midsummer night s dream" by Britten, "Kola Briunon" by Kabalevski, the ballet performance "Abraxas" by Egk.
In 1991 the opera house burnt. Although the hard conditions the Opera members did not stop enthusiastically to work and to please the audience. In 1997 the old building (aka "the old theater") was reconstructed and the performances took place on its stage. Today the State opera of Stara Zagora is a theater with large repertoire, which includes opera, symphonic concerts, musical, comedy, ballet and children and education performances. Annually there are 5 premiers (one of them Open-Air), 15 opera titles, over 15 symphonic concerts, 100 performances on the average and 40,000 audience.

Since 1967 each year in the beginning of May a Festival of the opera and ballet art has taken place on the stage of Stara Zagora. Stara Zagora is proud of the eminent opera singers born in the town – Anna Tomova-Sintov, Vesselina Kazarova, Stefka Mineva, Vesselin Stoykov, Nikolai Stoilov.
State Opera Stara Zagora is well known abroad. It has been on tours to Spain, Poland, Russia, Rumania, Greece, Germany, Italy, USA, Austria, Cyprus.

 

External link: Stara Zagora State Opera's official site