Tannhäuser – Sofia Opera and Ballet, Bulgaria

This summer’s Sofia Opera Wagner Festival was bookended by performances of Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser so it was fitting to see a winter revival from director Plamen Kartaloff and a lovely prelude to next summer’s Wagner Festival where it will once again feature alongside Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Tannhäuser (Martin Iliev) awakens in Venus’ (Radostina Nikolaeva) embrace at her cave where she reveals to him the wonders of her kingdom, but when he utters the name of the Holy Mary, her spell is broken. The pilgrims’ hymns echo through the valley of Wartburg as the men travel towards Rome and Tannhäuser decides to join them and beg for forgiveness for his sins.

Herman (Petar Buchkov), the landgrave of Thuringia, arrives accompanied by many of the most famous minnesängers. Wolfram (Ventseslav Anastasov) recognises Tannhäuser and hails him, reminding him that Elisabeth (Eleonora Djodjoska-Mladenova) still loves him and waits for him. Tannhäuser is invited to take part in the knight-singers’ competition and sets off for Wartburg where she will be present.

The landgrave announces the theme: ‘What is love?’. Wolfram will go first followed by Walter von der Vogelweide (Daniel Ostrezov), then Bitterolf (Mihail Motaylenko). They all praise love as the most noble emotion of all. When Tannhäuser sings, ‘love is not a false proclamation of selflessness, it is joy and delight!; the knights including Heinrich (Krassimir Dinev) and Reinmar (Nikolay Voynov) are outraged. Although upset by his language, Elizabeth stands with him and protects him. The landgrave, touched by Elisabeth’s strong feelings of love, pardons Tannhäuser who must atone for his sins on a pilgrimage to Rome.

Elisabeth prays for Tannhäuser, but when the pilgrims return from Rome he is not with them, she feels her impending death whilst Wolfram sings the sad song of Venus. Tannhäuser appears dressed in rags saying that the Pope has told him when the dry staff in his hand blooms, his sins will be forgiven. But will he be in time or will salvation be reached another way?

Sven Jonke’s set design is a somewhat mixed bag. The opening scene in Venus’ cave looks like it came straight out of a Woody Allen sci-fi movie with its sheer complexity causing an unnecessarily long delay and a lot of background noise in a silent auditorium for the scene 2 and 3 set change of Act I. All the remaining scenes were simplicity in themselves and whilst one might have wanted a bit more than painters’ drapes, it actually worked rather well, although the subsequent appearance in the final scene of Act III of a beckoning hand had terry Gilliam stamped all over it!

Conductor Velizar Genchev delightfully led the Orchestra of the Sofia Opera taking full advantage of the Overture and Preludes that Wagner provides at the start of each Act where our attention is not distracted by any action on stage. Musically it flowed beautifully through the varying emotion and intensity of each scene, capturing the joy and pain and without intending to single anyone out, I particularly enjoyed the flautists in Act III.

I must note the strong performance from the Chorus under the guidance of Violeta Dimitrova who met all the demands that Wagner asks of them, with an exceptional performance during the singers’ competition that saw all sixty of them on stage especially memorable.

The singers all perform strongly and although Iliev wavered vocally somewhat at the higher end of his scale in the opening Act, my guess is that he was saving himself for what turned out to be a powerful and striking performance at the conclusion.

Buchkov similarly wavered but was on the whole solid, whilst Anastasov delivered a superb vocal performance throughout and it was a pleasure to watch him perform.

Nikolaeva also wavered at the lower end of her scale in the opening Act but was resounding on her short re-emergence at the conclusion so maybe, along with Iliev and Buchkov, there was an issue with warming up or not having performed for some time.

Djodjoska-Mladenova was simply outstanding vocally and with a fine acting performance that wrung every emotion from her character’s turmoil and love.

A special mention for Maria Pavlova who makes a fleeting appearance as a young shepherd, but whose sweet vocal made a lasting impression.

I must also commend the members of the Sofia Ballet – Mina Vasilia Stoyanova; Rafael Katz; Charlotte Berard; Radul Roglev; Dario Yovcevski; Ivan Shopov; Tiri Berge; Jake Milston; Enrico Grivo; Ramona-Nicol Miteva; Vera Aspridi; Matthew Whittle; Deyan Ivanov; Beatriche Bee; Debora Tosheva; Zhaklin Draganova; Gabriela Kesyakova; Malena Djurova; Monika Yanebova; Polina Videnova) – who provided such sterling support, none more so than in the opening scenes as they wonderfully brought Venus’ abode to life with some wonderful choreography from Maria Ilieva.

Reviewer: Mark Davoren

Reviewed: 30^th November 2025

North West End UK Rating: