The Year of Russia in Bulgaria is an event designed to step up bilateral co-operation at all levels. With a hectic agenda of meetings of politicians, business people, civic organisations, scientists and culture devotees, it is expected to revive what was once an intense cross-fertilisation. The Festival of Russian Culture in Bulgaria is an event within the framework of the Year of Russia in Bulgaria.
Its start was inked with a bilateral inter-state agreement and hailed at the highest level. On January 17, Vladimir Putin and Georgi Purvanov, the Russian and Bulgarian heads of state, were the patrons of a gala-concert in NDK, Sofia, featuring 170 artists.
Throughout the year, Bulgaria will welcome more than 700 Russian actors, musicians, dancers and circus artists. Dozens of events are spread throughout the year, yet the main ones centre around dates of importance to Bulgaria and Russia – March 3 (Bulgarian Liberation Day), May 9 (Victory Day in Russia) and June 12 (Day of Russia). Their main objective is to reach as wide an audience as possible. For this reason, events will be staged in 12 to 14 cities. Many events will also be integrated into existing cultural events in Bulgaria – such as Sofia Film Fest.
According to Naiden Andreev, the Bulgarian culture ministry official appointed co-ordinator of the cultural calendar on the Bulgarian side, theatrical performances, film presentations, concerts and exhibitions will all go ahead but their dates are moveable feasts.
While the main Bulgarian co-ordinator is the Ministry of Culture, the Russian side is represented by Stas Namin Centre, a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting contemporary Russian culture abroad through – among others – festivals, music concerts and exhibitions.
The Bulgarian Cabinet is yet to issue an ordinance specifying the event’s budget. Nevertheless, Bulgaria will cover payments for halls and technical equipment. The Russian side will cover artists’ travel expenses and fees. Andreev says Bulgaria could hardly afford some of the Russian artists. Vladimir Spivakov, a renowned Russian violinist, costs $50 000 a night alone.
The Year of Russia in Bulgaria, a multi-level event to be staged throughout 2008 and succeeded by a reciprocal Year of Bulgaria in Russia, is intended to open a new chapter in Bulgarian-Russian relations following the cool stand-off of the past two decades. During this period a rejection of Russian influence was deemed necessary in Bulgaria so that the past could be thoroughly repudiated. Russophile numbers dwindled to a hard core of those with long-time friendships and kin relations or warm memories of trips to Russia.
That break with the past has also laid its imprint on cultural liaisons that dwindled in the post-Communist period, although the Russian Cultural and Information Centre, which this year celebrates its 30th birthday, remained. Its outreach, however, was reduced to the large Russian diaspora in Bulgaria because of waning interest.
Renewed efforts to stage cultural events for Russians and Bulgarians alike started in the late 1990s, resulting in a growing number of Russian artists, ballet dancers, actors and singers arriving in Bulgaria. The number of Russian appearances in Bulgaria – albeit through one-off events – is growing. Yet bilateral projects, so frequent in the past, are now fewer than a handful and largely based on inter-personal rather than inter-state levels. Such an example is Alexandr Mihailov, a Russian composer living in Bulgaria for decades who has created songs for Bulgarian singers.
There is also Mihail Pandurski, who created the Stranger (Непознатата), the first Bulgarian-Russian movie in 21 years. Its script draws on the novel, The Barrier, by Bulgarian writer Pavel Vezhinov, and falls into the mystery/thriller category. Pandurski is the first non-Russian director to have won partial financing from the federal culture and cinematography agency with the Russian culture and mass communications ministry.
Vladimir Angelov, a film director who graduated from Moscow’s all-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (ВГИК), is now busy preparing the second Bulgarian-Russian co-production. Its script will focus on the early 1950s when Bulgaria was undergoing an era of persecution reminiscent of Russia during Stalinist times and leading to murders of the “inconvenients”. He reckons the project could take off within a couple of years.
One of the main objectives of the Festival of Russian Culture in Bulgaria, as part of the Year of Russia in Bulgaria, will be to re-energise ties through bilateral projects.
The producer general of the Festival of Russian Culture in Bulgaria, Andrei Leliavin, arrived in Bulgaria on January 17-18 as part of the delegation accompanying Russian president Vladimir Putin. At a news conference in Sofia, he said the primary goal would be the creation of a Bulgarian-Russian brand, which would then be promoted on the European and Asian markets.
“Unfortunately, cultural ties in the past 10 to 15 years were broken. When we talk to Bulgarians – especially youngsters – we find out that they are ignorant of contemporary Russian culture,” Leliavin said. “They do not know our pop singers, our theatres and our cultural luminaries.”
Hence, another major goal of this year’s large-scale event will be to broaden the horizons of Bulgarian spectators. “We will introduce contemporary theatres, rock groups and the avant-garde Helikon Opera, alongside many other events, to the young generation,” he said.
Organisation
The organisation of a large-scale event such as the Festival of Russian Culture is rarely hiccup-free, both sides concede. Difficulties stem from the shortage of professional partners in Bulgaria and the lack of venues as well as discrepancies between offers and demand in technical procurement, Leliavin said.
“Few Bulgarian companies concentrate on tour organisation and this creates some tension,” Leliavin admits. “At the same time, we’d like to establish trust-based relations with local firms to strengthen co-operation and bring in future Bulgarian groups to Russia and Russian groups to Bulgaria. In so doing we’d create co-productions and joint programmes.”
Naiden Andreev agrees. A group of Russian specialists arrived to see on-site venues and inspect available technical equipment, he says, and many concert dates had to be moved back to ensure compliance with Russian requirements.
Currently, the main organisational problem is exhibitions, Andreev said. The Russians require larger exhibition areas, state guarantees and high insurances for art works.
Nevertheless, Andreev is optimistic that all technicalities will be resolved shortly.
Main events
All events in the cultural calendar are already known. It is hardly possible to name them all because there will be dozens but they will range from theatrical performances through to film screenings as well as concerts and craft fairs. These will cater to aficionados of both classics and contemporary music, comprising a medley of the two.
Venues for performances will be NDK and Bulgaria Hall in Sofia when it comes to concerts, the Ivan Vazov National Theatre and theatres in regional centres, Alexander Nevski square for outdoor fairs and concerts, cinemas in Sofia and regional centres for movie showings.
A key event to look out for in early March will be the performance of the Russian Army Academic Dance and Song Ensemble under the direction of Viktor Eliseev. The ensemble will perform in Varna, Bourgas, Vratsa and Sofia.
The Bulgarian public is already acquainted with Vladimir Spivakov, a violinist who also directs the Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra. He will arrive in late March and will feature two young talents that he picked last year during a master class, to whom he awarded scholarships from a foundation he runs together with Joker Media. This year he is also scheduled to hold a master class.
Another opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya will attend the International Young Talents Contest and will preside over the jury.
Nikita Mihalkov, the eminent Russian movie director, will arrive in early March and is set to appear before students of the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (НАТФИЗ). Bulgaria’s Sofia International Film Fest and other important movie festivals will also show 12 of his movies. The film calendar also includes the works of young movie directors who have already gained international recognition. Among those are The Banishment by Andrei Zvyagintsev, The Mermaid by Ana Melikyan, Travelling with Pets by Vera Storozheva, Cargo 200 by Alexei Balabanov, The Mongolians by Sergei Bedrov and Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case by Andrei Nekrasov.
The theatrical agenda is no less busy. The Moscow Art Theatre named after Anton Chekhov (МХАТ) will play Ducks Hunting by Aleksandr Vampilov. Maly Theatre (Малый театр) will open the Scene at the Crossroads festival in Plovdiv with Sin and Sorrow Are Common to All by Alexandr Ostrovsky.
Fomenko Theatre (Театр Фоменко) will be another drama troupe to watch as is the Russian hit The Red Torch (Красный факел) from Novosibirsk.
One of the grandest projects will be the Masters’ City, which will feature open-air celebrations with folklore dancers and craftsmen, a show Bulgaria has not seen in decades. The event will take place during the day outside the Alexander Nevski Cathedral. Open-door celebrations will end with concerts from Russian DJs and rock groups in the evening.
The opera performance roster consists of performances of stars under the Russian Romance programme and Galina Vishnevskaya. And the Helikon Opera, the award-winning avant-garde opera house, will arrive with performances of Boris Godunov and the Barber of Seville.
The musicians’ agenda will comprise violinist Vladimir Spivakov, the chamber trio named after Rahmaninov and Dmitriy Ilarionov, playing on classic guitar, and guitar quartet Smirnov.
The best, the bulk of all performances, is yet to come.
