Over the past years names such as Paata Burchuladze, Hui He, Ana Lucrecia Garcia, Elisabet Strid, Donata D’Annunzio Lombardi, Alberto Gazale, Christian Benedict, Lala Leigh, performers from the Vienna Volksoper and the Budapest Opera, prima ballet dancers from the Bolshoi Theatre and many others.

Shows at the Ancient Theatre are a magnet for wide audiences and suggest more intense experiences of the art created in this emblematic space, whose cultural layers go back centuries. The festival’s mission is to build a different world, one filled with emotion and spirituality, which will turn it into a critical part of the cultural maps of both Bulgaria and Europe.

In 2021, the music festival established as one of the most recognizable European open-air music forums will once again offer the audience productions with original and innovative stagings and performances in the fields of music-symphony, opera and dance. The audience will have the opportunity to enjoy the premieres of Tosca with the international production team lead by the director Ursula Horner (Austria); Don Giovanni presented under the mastery of the director Michał Znaniecki (Poland) and the visual decisions of Rafal Olbinski (USA); and the beloved Orf’s Carmina Burana. The festival will present also ballet performances and jazz symphony projects with international soloists.

A project realized by the State Opera Plovdiv, part of the Legacy programme of Plovdiv 2019.

On June 5, 1965, the first open-air opera performance took place in Plovdiv - "Aida" on Bunardzhika Hill (Liberation Hill).

"THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE" turns and 56 years later brings us back to the same date and the same place for the opening of OPERA OPEN 2021 with "CARMINA BURANA" by Carl Orff performed by more than 150 artists on stage. Original video projections will be woven into the scenography of the premiere performance of Opera Plovdiv, which revives the tradition of opera performances on the iconic Plovdiv hill.

The first show will be held on june 4th, 5th and 6t:  Special premiere and opening of Opera Open 2021 with Carmina Burana 9 pm, The Bunardzhika Hill.

Conductor: Emil Tabakov; Conductor of choirs: Dragomir Yosifov; Choreographer: Boryana Sechanova; Soloists: Plamena Girginova, Ivo Yordanov, Alexander Baranov; Ballet, Orchestra, and Choir of Plovdiv Opera; Choir at the Children's Academy of Opera Plovdiv with conductor Yana Deliradeva.

All the program here.