{"id":82,"date":"2018-03-02T10:08:26","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T10:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/demo.acmethemes.com\/event-star\/?page_id=196"},"modified":"2025-04-15T17:28:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T14:28:35","slug":"plamen-kartaloff","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.promfest.ee\/et\/competition\/jury\/plamen-kartaloff\/","title":{"rendered":"Plamen Kartaloff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professor Plamen Kartaloff<\/strong>
is a Member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Stage director, opera manager, and pedagogue.<\/p>\n

He graduated from the Bulgarian State Conservatory, today the National Music Academy of Music named after Prof. Pancho Vladigerov in Sofia, and he continued studying opera directing in Berlin and cinema directing at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia.<\/p>\n

Activities as Stage director and Manager
<\/strong>Still being a student, in 1972, he founded the first Chamber Opera in Bulgaria, renamed in 1976 as the Chamber Opera-Blagoevgrad, which is the first and only in Bulgaria till now, theatre of this kind. In the year 1982-86 Prof. Kartaloff was the General Manager and stage director of the Ruse Opera Theatre in Bulgaria and in 1990-1994 he was the Manager of the \u201cStefan Makedonski\u201d State Music Theatre in Sofia. In 1988-1990 he founded together with the great Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff, The Academy for Vocal Art in Rome, where he was teaching dramatic art to post-graduate students opera singers.<\/p>\n

From 1994-2000 and from 2008 to this day Prof. Kartaloff is the General Manager and stage director of the Sofia National Opera and Ballet.<\/p>\n

Productions<\/strong>
He has staged over 180 productions \u2013 since the beginning of the 70s when his activity as an opera stage director started.
Operas from different ages of the development of the genre \u2013 baroque, classicism, romantic to modern art. Chamber and big opuses, buffo, and serial operas.
Characteristic is also his interest in rarely produced or unknown\/forgotten operas like \u201cDie Pilgrime von Mekka\u201d \u2013 Gluck, \u201cLakm\u00e9\u201d \u2013 Delibes, \u201cFeodora\u201d \u2013 Giordano, \u201cLa gazza ladra\u201d \u2013 Rossini, \u201cDon Quichotte\u201d \u2013 Massenet, \u201cMavra\u201d, \u201cRenard\u201d, \u201cRake\u2019s Progress\u201d \u2013 Stravinsky, \u201cZar und Zimmermann\u201d \u2013 Lortzing, \u201cIl Guarany\u201d, \u201cFosca\u201d and \u201cMaria Tudor\u201d \u2013 by the Brazilian composer Gomes, the musical \u201cFiddler on the Roof\u201d \u2013 Stein and others.<\/p>\n

Together with the repertoire of classical opera, he has a special affinity for Russian and Bulgarian operas – Mussorgsky, Borodin, Vladigerov, Pipkov, Goleminov, and others.<\/p>\n

He has participated in his productions at prestigious festivals \u2013 national and European.
In the enormous artistic production of Acad. Kartaloff there are many Bulgarian premieres of Baroque works \u2013 by Monteverdi, Purcell, Galuppi, from the classicism \u2013 by Gluck, Haydn, from the 19th century \u2013 by Rossini, Donizetti, Puccini, from the 20th century \u2013 Stravinsky, Kholminov and others.
A unique fact in the newest history of music and stage art in Bulgaria is his remarkable realization of Wagner\u2019s most innovative works of largest scale \u2013 \u201cDer Ring des Nibelungen\u201d (2010-13), \u201cTristan und Isolde\u201d (2015), and \u201cParsifal\u201d (2017), presented with only Bulgarian opera singers for the first time in Bulgaria and on the Balkans!<\/p>\n

In 2012 \u201cSiegfried\u201d from Wagner\u2019s Tetralogy was performed with success at the Third International Christmas Opera Forum in Minsk, Belarus.
Since 2014, at the end of each opera season, the National Opera was presenting the cycle \u201cDer Ring des Nibelungen\u201d and Sofia has turned into a preferred destination \u2013 Wagner Festival, for the admirers of Wagner\u2019s works of art from dozens of countries from all over the world.
In 2020 the Bulgarian premiere of Richard Strauss\u2019s \u201cElektra\u201d was presented in the production of Plamen Kartaloff.<\/p>\n

Pedagogical activity<\/strong>
Since 1994 Kartaloff has taught Acting mastery at the National Academy of Music, succeeding in this discipline with some of the most eminent Bulgarian stage directors and pedagogues.
He created an individual methodology for his work with the young singers and has made a series of productions at the Training Opera Theatre of the Academy. Many students, who have passed through Plamen Kartaloff\u2019s school today are outstanding opera singers \u2013 in Bulgaria and abroad.
In 2009 he organized a unique international co-production of the opera \u201cLa vera costanza\u201d by Haydn \u2013 with Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, and the Sofia Opera, in which took part students from the National Academy of Music.<\/p>\n

Musically educative activity<\/strong>
Since 2014 the repertoire of the National Opera has included \u201cConcerts for Babies\u201d, an idea of the director Kartaloff \u2013 a wonderful form for the integration of the youngest ones and their parents into the operatic art. A model, after which other Bulgarian opera theatres started with their educative activity too.
He created and realized also the musically educative program \u201cOpera for Children\u201d \u2013 with operas for children and adaptations of big opera titles, which invariably provoke enormous interest among the youngest audience.<\/p>\n

Ideas for the popularization of the art of the opera<\/strong>
In the 80s of the 20th century, in the old capital Veliko Tarnovo for the first time in Bulgaria, he founded the \u201cStage of the Ages\u201d Summer Opera Festival. Here on the Tsarevets Hill, in the open air, he realized a series of super productions, with some pauses, till 2015 \u2013 his attractive super productions of classical opera opuses like \u201cPrince Igor\u201d \u2013 Borodin, \u201cDon Carlo\u201d, \u201cAttila\u201d\u2013 Verdi and many others also by Bulgarian composers \u2013 \u201cTsar Kaloyan\u201d \u2013 Vladigerov, \u201cIvaylo\u201d \u2013 Goleminov and others.
He is the creator of \u201cOpera in the Park\u201d and \u201cOpera in the Square\u201d \u2013 opera festivals in the capital Sofia with his mega productions of operas like \u201cAida\u201d, \u201cTsar Kaloyan\u201d, \u201cPrince Igor\u201d and others.
In 2014 in the square in front of the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was performed his grandiose production of \u201cBoris Godunov\u201d, and in the Summer of 2016 \u2013 \u201cNabucco\u201d.
In 2016, on his idea, a summer festival was opened in Belogradchik \u2013 \u201cOpera of the Peaks \u2013 Belogradchik Rocks\u201d (among the natural sets of the fortress).
In 2017 he founded the \u201cFortress of the Ages\u201d Summer Festival \u2013 in the Baba Vida\u2019s Fortress in the town of Vidin, which lays along the Danube River \u2013 with operas, ballets, and performances for children. In the festival\u2019s program was also Puccini\u2019s one-act opera \u201eIl tabarro\u201d, which Kartaloff staged in the original place of action \u2013 an actual barge, laid alongside the Danube.<\/p>\n

Guest performances<\/strong>
Kartaloff has been a guest performer at opera theatres and on stages on five continents \u2013 in Europe, America (the USA and Brazil), Japan, Australia, and Egypt \u2013 Cairo.
He was invited many times to all Bulgarian opera theatres and at prestigious festivals.
In 2015 the Sofia Opera presented \u201cDer Ring des Nibelungen\u201d at the Festival Theatre in F\u00fcssen, Bavaria, not far from Ludwig II\u2019s Neuschwanstein Castle. The German music critique appreciated very highly and enthusiastically Kartaloff\u2019s productions, respectively \u2013 the Bulgarian interpretation of the four operas.
From 2000 to 2015 the National Opera had guest performances in Japan \u2013 Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and other cities with \u201cTurandot\u201d, \u201cLa Gioconda\u201d, \u201cDon Carlo\u201d, \u201cRigoletto\u201d, \u201cUn ballo in maschera\u201d, \u201cPrince Igor\u201d, \u201cTosca\u201d, \u201cCavalleria rusticana\u201d, \u201cGianni Schicchi\u201d and other productions by Plamen Kartaloff, lauded by the Japanese critique and audience as some of the brightest guest performing casts and productions. In October 2018 there was a guest performance of the theatre for the seventh time in Japan with \u201cTurandot\u201d and \u201cCarmen\u201d.<\/p>\n

Many times, he has been invited to the jury of renowned international competitions for young opera singers (the Klaudia Taev Competition 2019 among others).
He has participated in European conferences with reports on artistic, organizational, and management issues of the opera theatre.
He is the author of the book \u201cYana\u2019s Nine Brothers by Lyubomir Pipkov \u2013 Director\u2019s Projections\u201d \u2013 a large-scale development of remarkable work in the Bulgarian operatic art, which he produced at the Ruse Opera in 1984 and once again with a premiere on 22 March 2018 at the National Opera. His book \u201cMy Wagner with the Sofia Opera\u201d chronicles the decade of exploration of Wagner\u2019s masterworks since 2010.<\/p>\n

Awards and titles<\/strong>
\u201cPaisiy Hilendarski\u201d State Award for his exceptional contribution to the development of the national cultural identity and spiritual values;
Cyril and Methodius State Order, First-class;
the highest governmental order of Brazil \u2013 the South Cross Order;
\u201cCrystal Lyre\u201d of the Union of Bulgarian Musicians and Dancers;
the awards of the Bulgarian National Radio and Sofia Municipality;
\u201cGolden Book\u201d of the European Forum of Experts;
Award for best directing \u2013 his production of \u201cL\u2019elisir d\u2019amore\u201d by Donizetti, handed out by the Belgrade National Theatre.
Since 2012 Plamen Kartaloff is a member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
In 2018 he was made an honorary citizen of Sofia.<\/p>\n

The artistic path of Academician Plamen Kartaloff is marked by many unique and innovative projects, realized with ambition, persistence, devotion, and work. A reflection of talent, erudition, mastery, experience, and charisma.
His versatile artistic and organizational activity was always successful, thanks to his invariably successful preparation, his skill to create an orderly organization of the preparation, and his overall mastering of the creative process, to clear goals and long-term planning. But also to his ability to fascinate and convince the hundreds of engaged artists, technical associates, and sponsors. Without compromise in his work, Kartaloff is looking for innovative solutions, in order to overcome successfully all kinds of difficulties in the name of the goals and the contemporary tasks of the art of the opera. This was synthesized also in the assessment of Nicholas Payne, the director of the international organization \u201cOpera Europa\u201d \u2013 on the occasion of the international United forum held in Sofia in March 2018: \u201cAt the Sofia Opera, there is something, which in most Western theatres was lost. The feeling of an ensemble, of a team. The Sofia Opera has an identity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Sofia Rahvusooper
\nPeadirektor
\nakadeemik, lavastaja<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1152,"parent":9,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-82","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.promfest.ee\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.promfest.ee\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.promfest.ee\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.promfest.ee\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.promfest.ee\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.promfest.ee\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6130,"href":"https:\/\/www.promfest.ee\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/82\/revisions\/6130"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.promfest.ee\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.promfest.ee\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.promfest.ee\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}