The second week of production rehearsals for the ballet Calliope has come to an end. We completed work on the big ball scene on the occasion of the performance of F. Liszt who came to the city. Where the meeting of the main characters takes place. We worked with the soloists on an extended love duet. Thank you all very much for your enthusiastic work.

As promised, some information about the legend of Kaliope, on which the ballet is based.

The legend of the beautiful Calliope is a love story of the city of Ruse.

A beautiful two-story building in the largest Bulgarian city on the banks of the Danube is known as the House of Calliope.

This popular name is associated with a legend that city residents love to tell their guests.

The most popular version of the legend states that the house originally belonged to the ruler of the Ruse sanjak, Midhad Pasha.

When he came to power in Ruse, as the ruler of the Danube vilayet, Midhat Pasha fell in love with a very beautiful lady from the local society, she was called Calliope. However, unfortunately for him, she was married to another man. Katherine Kalish, known as Calliope, was the wife of the Prussian consul Maurice Kalish. 

The lover Midhat Pasha wanted to somehow impress her and decided to build a house to give his beloved a gift. But even in those days, it was not very appropriate to give such a big gift to a foreign wife, so Midhat Pasha came up with an elegant way for her to receive a house without causing a scandal in society. He arranged a tournament for the beautiful ladies of the city, where they had to shoot pigeons and for the winner of the tournament, this house was declared a prize. Midhat Pasha wanted Calliope to win, so he arranged everything to make it happen. While the  other ladies fired blanks, she fired live ammunition. So Calliope won the tournament. The beautiful building became her property - a symbolic secluded nest in which the two of them could secretly meet, which is why the residents of Ruse still call it the House of Calliope

Unfortunately, the beautiful story between them ends tragically. Midhad Pasha was urgently summoned to Constantinople.