Sonia Yoncheva will be a guest at the “Opera in the Summer Theater” in Varna with “Madame Butterfly”

The singer Sonia Yoncheva will be a guest again at the “Opera in the Summer Theater” forum in Varna, the Theater and Music Production Center (TMPC) in the city announced on its website. After last year’s appearance in a gala concert with the orchestra of the Varna Opera under the direction of Krastin Nastev with the participation of soloists Valentina Kutsarova, Milen Bozhkov and Plamen Dimitrov, Yoncheva will appear again in front of the Varna audience on August 10 in the lead role in the opera “Madame Butterfly” by Giacomo Puccini.
Her partner as Pinkerton will be Arsen Sogomonyan. The other roles include Mihaela Berova, Lilia Ilieva-Mihailova, Plamen Dimitrov. The production is the work of Nina Naydenova with scenography by Petko Tanchev, costumes by Tsvetanka Petkova-Stoynova and choreography by Boryana Sechanova. The conductor of the orchestra of the Varna Opera will be Nayden Todorov.
As BTA wrote, 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of Giacomo Puccini’s death. The Varna Opera is also included in the celebrations, staging the composer’s three one-act operas – “The Mantle”, “Gianni Scicchi” and “Sister Angelica”, whose first meetings with the audience in concert performances are today and on April 24. They will then be presented together on June 26 at the Summer Theater in the city.
August 10 will be Sonia Yoncheva’s first appearance for Bulgaria in “Madame Butterfly” after her success in the role in a series of performances at the Berlin Opera since the beginning of the year, TMPC-Varna reports. Her Cho-Cho San won the admiration of audiences and critics, who described the singer as “a rare diamond of the operatic art” and wrote that her interpretation showed her remarkable stage evolution.
Puccini created the opera after a visit to London, where he saw in one of the London theaters the drama Geisha by David Belasco, based on the novel by the American writer John L. Long. His literary collaborators Luigi Ilica and Giuseppe Giacozza tackled the libretto, and Puccini composed the first act before the text of the entire opera was finally ready. In his work, he studied Japanese folk songs, researched works, listened to Japanese songs, and recorded chants from the wife of the Japanese ambassador to Rome, Okiyama, some of which he used in his music. The score of Madame Butterfly, subtitled The Tragedy of a Japanese Woman, was completed at the end of 1903 and premiered on February 17, 1904 at Milan’s La Scala theater, the Varna Opera recalls.