State Opera Varna

Varna State Opera was founded in 1947, with the tenor Petar Raychev and conductor Ruslan Raychev playing central roles in its establishment. Its first production, Smetana's The Bartered Bride, opened on 7 September 1947. The company developed a repertoire of opera, operetta and ballet for audiences on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. In 1957 a production of Verdi's Aida under Yosko Yosifov inaugurated its activity on the summer stage. This outdoor tradition became an enduring part of the company's work alongside performances in its theatre. The institution's history is closely connected with the growth of professional opera in Varna after the Second World War. Opera became a permanent institution on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast in 1947, when the Varna company was founded; the city's festival calendar was older still, Varna Summer having begun in 1926 as the first of its kind in the country. The two have been bound together ever since, the opera taking a central part in the festival each year, indoors and in the open air. Its seasons run to opera, ballet and choral-orchestral work — Bizet's Carmen and Orff's Carmina Burana among the titles heard.