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Operosa is an annual classical music and opera festival. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music. Operosa is active in the Balkan region with the main festival event in Herceg Novi in Montenegro.
Operosa was founded by Finnish mezzo-soprano Katherine Haataja in 2006. [1] It was founded with the purpose of promoting young opera and classical music talent and actively providing production work opportunities to young artists. The first open air opera festival was launched in June 2007 in Varna, Bulgaria in the open air of the Euxinograd castle garden with the opera Don Giovanni by W.A. Mozart. [2] [3] The following year festival performances were held in Sofia at the Ivan Vazov National Theatre. Operosa returned to Euxinograd in 2009 and 2010 with performances of La Voix Humaine by Francis Poulenc, [4] [5] [6] [7] and Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod. [8] [9] [10]
In 2011 Operosa produced opera performances in Belgrade in Serbia at the Belgrade Youth Center. It was the first time an opera was performed at the center. 2012 was dedicated to baroque opera with workshops, master classes and performances of Pimpinone opera by Georg Philipp Telemann at the Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment in Belgrade in Serbia as well as at Betahaus in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2013 Operosa participated at the Night of Culture event in Herceg Novi in Montenegro for the first time with a staged performance of La Voix Humaine by Francis Poulenc. The following year in September 2014 Operosa produced an international full-scale opera performance of Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod. [11] [12] Since, the Operosa Montenegro Opera Festival has taken place in the Old Town, the Forte Mare and the Kanli Kula Fortress open air amphitheater in Herceg Novi, Montenegro. [13] [14] [15]
A dedicated educational program (Operosa Academia) was initiated in 2012 and is active in Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro. It provides training all year round for young opera and classical music artists with master classes, workshops and smaller scale opera performances. Operosa also supports young artists with awards and stipends.
Operosa has collaboration and exchange schemes with international opera establishments such as Aix-en-Provence Festival, Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, Aldeburgh Music Helsinki Festival, La Monnaie, Dutch National Opera and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation through the ENOA network of European opera academies. [16]
In 2017 Operosa was selected for co-funding by the European Union programme for culture Creative Europe. The project YOUNG@OPERA was created by Operosa in cooperation with partners Herceg Novi municipality and Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment with performances across Montenegro, Serbia and Bulgaria.
Artists who have performed and worked at Operosa include mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore, soprano Darina Takova, alto Marijana Mijanovic, mezzo-soprano Katherine Haataja, set designer Jamie Vartan, stage director John La Bouchardiere, stage director Martin Lloyd-Evans, stage director and designer Tim Hopkins, stage director Seth Yorra, stage director Ashley Dean, lighting and set designer Simon Corder, costume and set designer Domenico Franchi, set designer Cordelia Chisholm, lighting designer Kevin Treacy, organist and harpsichordist Jeremy Joseph, conductor Eraldo Salmieri, conductor Predrag Gosta, Sofia Symphonic Orchestra, Varna Philharmonic Society Chamber Orchestra and Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra
Operosa events take place across the Balkan region and since its inauguration have included the following productions.
In 2007 Operosa released a recording named “Perle” under the label Orpheus Music. [17] It features works by W.A. Mozart, G. Rossini, G.F. Handel, A. Vivaldi and Giulio Caccini performed by the Sofia Symphonic Orchestra together with conductor Nayden Todorov, mezzo-soprano Katherine Haataja, guitar by Rosen Balkanski and harpsichord by Magdalena Vasileva.
Varna is the third-largest city in Bulgaria and the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and in the Northern Bulgaria region. Situated strategically in the Gulf of Varna, the city has been a major economic, social and cultural centre for almost three millennia. Historically known as Odessos, Varna developed from a Thracian seaside settlement to a major seaport on the Black Sea.
Herceg Novi is a town in Coastal region of Montenegro located at the Western entrance to the Bay of Kotor and at the foot of Mount Orjen. It is the administrative center of the Herceg Novi Municipality with around 33,000 inhabitants. The town was founded as a fortress in 1382 by the King of Bosnia, Tvrtko I Kotromanić, and named after Saint Stephen but the name did not stick, instead it became known as Novi (transl. New), also Castelnuovo in Italian. Between 1482 and 1687 it was part of the Ottoman Empire and then from 1687 to 1797 the Albania Veneta of the Republic of Venice. It was a Catholic bishopric and remains a Latin titular see as Novi. Herceg Novi has had a turbulent past, despite being one of the youngest settlements on the Adriatic. A history of varied occupations has created a blend of diverse and picturesque architectural style in the city.
Euxinograd is a late 19th-century Bulgarian former royal summer palace and park on the Black Sea coast, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) north of downtown Varna. The palace is currently a governmental and presidential retreat, hosting cabinet meetings in the summer and offering access for tourists to several villas and hotels. Since 2007, it is also the venue of the Operosa opera festival. Euxinograd is situated at an altitude of 49 m. The park and palace were closed until the summer of 2016 due to extensive renovations.
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