Kosovo tenor select to perform in Mozart’s Magic Flute

TIRANA, August 4 – Albania’s National Theatre of Opera and Ballet has selected Kosovo tenor Riad Ymeri to perform the starring role in Mozart’s Magic Flute, which will be the premiere opening the new season at the Opera House next September. The Kosovo young tenor was a selected by a jury headed by Zhani Ciko, the Opera House’s director, soprano Edit Mihali and German director Stefan Neugenbauer.
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue.
The National Theatre of Opera and Ballet closed its season for the first half of this year with the “Ritual of Life” musical, created by Zhani Ciko, the Opera House’s director. The musical mixing Albanian folklore with contemporary elements brought on stage three main phases of a human being’s life, the birth, the wedding and death. The National Theatre of Opera and Ballet has scheduled to stage other premieres such as Puccini’s Turandot and parts by Stravinsky later this year.
The big premieres the Opera House is staging this year will also be followed by Albanian and foreign instrumentalists such as a concert with parts from Hungarian composer Franz Liszt and another concert by Albanian born, US based baritone Kreshnik Zhabjaku.
This year’s programme will also bring concerts dedicated to the 100th birth anniversary of late Albanian soprano Marie Kraja and commemorate the 25th anniversary of the debut of Albanian internationally renowned soprano, Inva Mula.
The National Theatre of Opera and Ballet will be financially supported by the Eagle Mobile operator which has become its general sponsor for the 2011-2012 period.