Programme

The Chosen Chooser

Who is this Roman Vlad who composed 'The Seagull'? a well-known director asked me, a great music fan, therefore always present at the concerts and shows of the Enescu Festival. The meaning of this question was suggested by its intonation: Who is this Roman Vlad

The Exceptional Value

It's been a long time since, at the Romanian Opera, I have assisted at a première with an allure of great show as it is now Mihaela Atanasiu's Peer Gynt. An authentic première, not the remake of a show put out of the program for a while, not the resumption, either,

I Don't Have Any Nostalgia For Princes Charming - Interview With Tiberiu Almosnino

Vivia Săndulescu: Tell me, Tiberiu Almosnino, how many years have you been serving the opera?Tiberiu Almosnino: I graduated from the Choreography High School in Bucharest in 1981, and the same year I was hired at the Romanian Opera, following a contest. So… VS: If you

Musical Summer In Europe

Schwerin Founded by Heinrich der Lowe in 1160, the city today is worthy of its eight-century tradition. It abounds in vestiges – proudly and understandingly nurtured – of a history that is comprehensive in what regards the cultivation of music, too. The notes that I

Echoes

On 20 November 1921 an enthusiastic letter written by the poet Cincinat Pavelescu is published in Rampa, a letter which we see fit to transcribe in full: Dear Mr. Editor in Chief, My life's absorbing activities of incessant work at the head of a newspaper without any

Echoes: Excerpts From The Farewell Concert

In an obituary published in the Tages Anzeiger of Zurich, Mario Gerteis draws a suggestive portrait of Celibidache in his youth. A nervous fiery ball, halfway between histrionics and insight, between passion and obsession. His dark locks hanging over his face in disorder,

Paris In May

I cannot think of a more fortunate coincidence: this is the first time I have visited Paris in May and the show is extraordinary. I know somebody who keeps a dried chestnut flower between the covers of a notebook, a flower that he has picked up from the sidewalk in Cluny

Journey Into The Unknown

For centuries now, every once in three years, The Feast of Immortality – Kumbh Mela, takes place alternatively in four Indian centers : Allahabad and Hardwar (Uttar Pradesh state), Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) and Nasik (Maharashtra). Descending from Vedic mythology, the feast

Collections Of The Astra Transylvanian Folk Civilization Museum

The museum is the beneficiary of the patrimony, programme, theme and structure of the Asociaţiunea (Association) Museum. The latter was the first museum of the Romanians in Transylvania, opened in 1905, then closed in 1950 out of political reasons. Inaugurated in 1993,

Grigoraş Dinicu: Memoirs

excerpt  These lines will introduce us into the international career of the great violin virtuoso. At the height of his career, Grigoraş Dinicu carried across the world the fame of Romanian fiddlers and of the rich Romanian folk song. After the creation of the Bucharest

At Grandiflora

excerpt In the town square, behind Gustav Café, there is the variety entertainment ale-house with the strange name Bucharest Hotel (it has room only for women-artists), Mr. Cocoşel's winter public house. Ancient house, rather long and low, the hotel twinkles its

Thoughts About A Possible History Of Gaster's Presence In Romanian Literature

In White Moor by Ion Creangă, the Rabelais-tinged philosophy of Gaster (the Belly), (Mikhail Bakhtin) represents one of the tests the main character has to pass in order to marry the daughter of the Red Emperor. As in any fairy-tale, be it in its cultivated variant, nothing