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The Austrian director Ursula Horner has been staging The Tales of Hoffmann in Plovdiv for several weeks. The energetic lady is a graduate of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, has been an assistant to Roman Polanski, and hosted children’s shows on ORF. In her early years, she participated in over 30 productions at the Vienna State Opera, and later began directing musicals and operas in Europe and the USA. Her enchanting production of The Tales of Hoffmann by Offenbach has already been staged at Hall 1 of the NDK, and now it will come to life again with the performers of Opera Plovdiv on April 13 and 27.
Ursula Horner shares: “In other operas, there are moments where you might get bored, but in The Tales of Hoffmann, the harmony between the musical text and the stage action is perfect. From start to finish, Offenbach’s music captivates and intrigues.”
For Ursula Horner, her work with Opera Plovdiv is filled with inspiration and satisfaction. Emotional and artistic, she is breathless with excitement as she describes the characters in The Tales of Hoffmann. She starts with Hoffmann – “A role that requires the singer to have all the nuances in their voice – from lyrical to dramatic to heroic tones. The role of Hoffmann is very difficult and endlessly long – he is on stage from beginning to end.” For music lovers in Plovdiv, it will be a treat to hear the first tenor of the Sofia Opera, Kostadin Andreev, who has over 30 leading opera roles behind him. The baritone Mikhail Puliev will take on the four roles of Evil. He is the negative character in the production, who denies everything and acts as Hoffmann’s shadow – constantly stopping him in everything he touches and making him feel that he is wrong. Hoffmann’s love muses are performed by sopranos Stanislava Ivanova, Svetlana Ivanova, Evgeniya Ralcheva, and Mariana Panova.
Ursula Horner is in Plovdiv with a production team from Macedonia – the set designer is Maria Veteroska, the costume designer is Maria Pupuchevska, and the lighting designer is Vasil Lisichov. In the rehearsal halls, a creative process is taking place in several languages – Bulgarian, German, English, and Macedonian, but without the services of a translator. The Plovdiv audience will have the opportunity to enjoy an operatic vision that is truly at the world-class level. "The Tales of Hoffmann" is an unfinished opera, so there are many different versions. We can't say that this is the original version. That’s why we, as directors, have the freedom to intervene. And that’s the wonderful thing because no matter how many times you watch this opera, it’s never the same," says the director.