Bulgarian National Ballet Theater

The Bulgarian National Opera and Ballet Theater is considered a national cultural organization and is significant in the spiritual life of the people.

The first Opera company was founded in Bulgaria in 1890 as part of the Capital Opera and Drama company. At that time, the Opera Company was under the management of three Bulgarian artists including Dragomir Kazakov, Ivan Slavkov and Angel Bukoreshtliev. Performances with more than 12 operas and excerpts of 11 different operas performed by Bulgarian, Czech, Italian, ... have received success and unexpected reception from the side. audience. Therefore, in 1891, the theater and opera departments were separated into the troupe "Tear and Laughter" and the Bulgarian Capital Opera. Due to financial difficulties and lack of state support, on October 1, 1892, a decree announced the dissolution of the troupe.

Later, in 1908, following the birth of the Opera House was the establishment of the Bulgarian Opera Association. The first full opera to be performed after the event was "The Clowns" by Leoncavallo (the content tells about an event that took place in the author's childhood). Along with the classics of world opera, the first Bulgarian operas are performed - "Poor Woman" by Emanuil Manolov, "Stone and Price" by Ivan Ivanov and Vaclav Kautsky, "Borislav" by Maestro Georgi Atanasov and "Tahir Begovitsa" by Dimitar Hadjigeorgiev.

As the theater developed into a system and style suitable for ensemble acts, the members of the opera company now included soloists, choirs, orchestras, ballets, technical teams. ,... This is also the time when the opera repertoire is produced more and more up to 10 new operas and ballets every year in addition to the concerts. Gradually, the basic archive of world opera classics was established, at the same time the theater began to attract Bulgarian composers, who created new national works. It was not until 1922 that the theater became a national institution and changed its name to the National Opera and Ballet Theatre.

In 1944, the capital Sofia was severely damaged by Allied bombing during World War II, the theater had to be closed for a while. Then, in 1921, the design of a new theater was approved and officially started construction between 1947 and 1953.

Since its founding to this day, many world-renowned artists, singers and ballet troupes have been guests at the National Opera and Ballet Theater, and this is also the place that maintains the constant interest of the audience. Bulgaria for this art form. Visitors to Sofia can come here and watch famous operas at the theater such as "Rigoletto", "Turandot", "Evgeni Onegin" and the ballet "Zorba the Greek", "Don Quixote" and More plays are currently being performed.

Website : www.operasofia.bg

Phone : + 359 2 8006266

Hours of Operation :

Information centre

Monday - Friday: 09:00 - 18:00

Saturday - Sunday: 10:00 - 14:30

Ticket office

Monday - Friday: 09:00 - 14:00 ; 14:30 - 19:00

Saturday: 11:00 - 14:00 ; 14:30 - 19:00

Sunday: 11:00 - 14:00 ; 14:30 - 16:00