The Bulgarian Embassy in Oslo hosted Friday a meeting with the Bulgarian community in Norway on the occasion of Bulgaria’s Unification Day, September 6, at the invitation of Bulgarian Ambassador Dessislava Ivanova. The event was attended by actors of Sofia Theatre, its Director Irinei Konstantinov, as well as BTA Director General Kiril Valchev.
On September 6, the Sofia Theatre troupe performed Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt at Chateau Neuf, the building housing the Norwegian Students’ Society.
At the beginning of the meeting in the Embassy, the new Bulgarian Ambassador to Norway Dessislava Ivanova welcomed the guests in the embassy’s courtyard and congratulated them on the Unification Day. She presented her new team and said that they were lucky to start their term of office with the Sofia Theatre’s performance of Peer Gynt.
She also welcomed BTA General Director Kiril Valchev and prior to giving him the floor, talked about the beginning of BTA, which was originally an information department of the Foreign Ministry before it “grew into BTA: the oldest, most reputable media organization, which everyone relies on”.
Valchev praised the Sofia Theatre’s performance and interpretation of Ibsen’s play, which in his words “impressed even the Norwegians”.
The BTA Director General went on to tell the Bulgarian community about the opportunities for Bulgarians to be present in Norway with news on the BTA BG World service, which transmits news of Bulgarians around the globe.
Valchev addressed the representatives of the Bulgarian community in Norway at the event: “It goes without saying that we are stronger when we are together, when we are united, but when we know what we are doing wherever we are in the world, we manage to achieve what Peer Gynt achieved with his travels: we can compare. This is the most valuable thing about information, which spreads so easily nowadays: you can compare yourself with the rest.”
The BTA General Director said that the use of the agency’s content has been free of charge since last year, and its website, www.bta.bg, offers some 1,000 news stories in Bulgarian a day and over 50 stories in English. “You can find out what is happening in Bulgaria by using BTA,” Valchev said.
The Oslo-based Bulgarians were also addressed by Sofia Theatre Director Irinei Konstantinov who expressed his excitement over being in Oslo and determination to be back again soon with his actors and a new play.
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