Name: Yoncheva at the TCE: The Audience Will Not Forget Her!
Item: Opera Gala with Sonya Yoncheva & Nayden Todorov in Paris
Author: Frédérique Epin

The Bulgarian soprano jokes that "there is a great concentration of Bulgarians" this evening at the TCE, notably in the presence of compatriots from the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and its conductor Nayden Todorov. The latter knows well the ensemble he has led for nearly twenty years. The instrumentalists nevertheless seem surprised by the energy he injects from the very first piece, "La Tregenda" from Puccini's opera Le Villi. But they rise to the occasion when the conductor literally leaps onto the podium for a breakneck overture to Bizet's Carmen. The instrumentalists are equally present in the Intermezzo from Puccini's Manon Lescaut, the solo strings delighting with expressivity and the ensemble sound unfolding harmoniously. With great naturalness and much verve they seize the seven-beat metres typical of the Bulgarian folk repertoire in "Rachenitsa", one of Petko Staynov's Thracian Dances.