National Music Theatre

The Stefan Makedonski National Music Theatre in Sofia emerged in 1948 from the People's Operetta established the previous year. Its origins belong to the professional operetta tradition begun by Angel Sladkarov's company at the Odeon Theatre in 1917–1918. Stefan Makedonski became the new institution's director and artistic leader, with Sasha Popov and Ruslan Raychev among its principal conductors. Its repertory has combined the operettas of Johann Strauss, Lehár, Kálmán and Offenbach with musicals, Bulgarian works and productions for children. Resident soloists, chorus, orchestra and ballet sustain this mixture of sung theatre, dance and concert performance. Orchestra Operetta has a permanent home in Sofia, and the orchestra of the national music theatre is what makes it possible. The company's business is sung theatre outside the opera-house repertoire — Viennese and Hungarian operetta above all, together with musicals and light staged works — and its players spend their seasons in the pit with Strauss, Kálmán and Lehár. "Wiener Blut" is exactly the sort of piece the house exists to keep in repertory.