SOFIA, Feb 28, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – With an orchestra spread out across the
entire parterre, audiences limited to the balconies, and no breaks but plenty
of disinfectant, the Sofia Opera is one of the few music venues still hosting
live performances in Europe. Across the continent, a third wave of Covid-19
infections is keeping opera houses and other cultural venues closed — loud
singing poses a particular risk as the virus spreads through droplets — but
in Bulgaria, classical music plays on, from “Tosca” to “La Traviata”.
“I am hungry for music. And the risk, why think about it? It’s not riskier
here than in the supermarket or the subway,” says 81-year-old Petya Petkova,
who attended Verdi’s “La Traviata” with her daughter last week.
Despite the disinfectant, social-distancing and staff taking people’s
temperature, a festive spirit reigns at the historic opera house in the
Bulgarian capital, a stark contrast to its silenced counterparts in Paris,
Vienna or Milan.
Bulgaria first eased pandemic restrictions in June and allowed operas,
concert halls and cinemas to reopen at 30 percent capacity, leading the Sofia
Opera to arrange plastic and fabric flower bouquets as placeholders on the
majority of the crimson plush seats.
“We perform in front of 250 spectators, but it’s better than not playing
or performing,” Sofia Opera director Plamen Kartaloff says.
Even as Europe struggles with a third wave of infections, in part due to a
number of mutations that spread more easily, Kartaloff expects the opera to
remain open.
– Acoustic challenges –
Tragedy has touched the operatic community, and not just on stage: In
November, Bulgarian tenor Kamen Chanev died of Covid-19, three weeks after he
debuted Otello in the central Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora.
Remembering him, soprano Stanislava Momekova, 36, becomes serious.
“That’s the risk of this profession — it holds us like a drug, it’s
stronger than fear,” Momekova says.
For American conductor Evan-Alexis Christ, who saw his performances in
Germany cancelled, bringing “La Traviata” to the stage feels rewarding,
despite a number of “acoustic challenges”.
From the pit, the orchestra had to move to the parterre, where musicians
now sit far apart from one another. The singers on stage are even farther
away.
“We are acoustically louder for the audience than normal so the orchestra
has to play very quietly and listen even more to the singers,” Christ says.
“But overall I think everyone is very happy, also the musicians and the
singers who are able to perform,” he adds, praising the discipline of the
musicians, who, with the exception of singers and tube instruments, perform
with face masks on.
– Luring younger audiences –
To Christ, the opera in Sofia and in Madrid, which has also kept its doors
open, are proof that it’s still possible to play for a live audience.
“My feeling is that people are incredibly hungry, they want to hear
music,” Christ says, adding that he hopes “to make a difference” for the 250
people in the audience that night.
Thanks to Kartaloff’s ingenuity, the Sofia Opera has found a number of
ways to perform amid the pandemic: “Swan Lake” was staged on the pontoon of a
lake near Sofia, while other operas reverberated through an old Roman
fortress.
Some musical theatre performances were limited to adults with children, a
way to focus on the audience of the future, Kartaloff says.
As clubs and bars have mostly remained closed, Bulgaria’s opera halls have
become more alluring to younger audiences, including students who put on
their prom suits to see “La Traviata”.
“It’s a huge pleasure to have the chance to attend a nice event such as
the opera,” 38-year-old Nikolay Onufriev, who’s only been to the opera once
before, says.
“It’s a way to escape from the grey, everyday life that we have amid the
coronavirus pandemic, and for me, this is something big.”