Bucharest National Opera House invites music fans to online performances

The National Opera House in Bucharest decided to post its performances online

Ana-Maria Cononovici, 07.04.2020, 11:41

Over the past few years, we have enjoyed many premieres, with guests from major international opera houses, with internationally acclaimed directors and impressive stage sets. And because the Bucharest National Opera House, the countrys biggest lyrical music establishment, could not abandon its public, the institution decided to post its performances online. We talked with Stefan Ignat, the director general of the Bucharest National Opera House:

Stefan Ignat: “We are not sure how long this crisis will last, but for the forthcoming period we have recordings of the performances staged over the past 2 years. I will only mention a few of them—Don Carlos, Tosca, The Troubadour, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Carmina Burana, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nut-Cracker. We have very good recordings of Balliadera, Ludwig Minkus ballet. And we would love for the general public to see them online. This is a difficult period and opera should remain visible. We are planning to post two performances a week, on Mondays and Thursdays at 18.30. We hope the quality of the posts will be appropriate, and if not, we apologize in advance.

And because the National Opera House means to stay loyal to its public while at the same time winning over new fans, the management is working on a second plan as well, as the director general Stefan Ignat tells us:

Stefan Ignat: “Over the next period we intend to record brief performances with soloists and orchestra members, arias from their repertoires if possible. We expect the audience to love this, and we are happy to respond to their suggestions. And we also seek to provide the best-quality experiences that we can.

Every week, the Bucharest National Opera House will post online 2 of its most popular performances. We invited Stefan Ignat to give us a few details about the platform on which we can access these performances:

Stefan Ignat: “Each performance will be available on the institutions Facebook account. We figured this is a good time for people to learn more about the Bucharest Opera House and about other activities that we carry out. In the coming 2 months, we will probably be able to post all the 13-14 premieres that we have recorded recently.

The online season started with Giuseppe Verdis Don Carlos. The performance was recorded on February 18, 2018. Stefan Ignat, the director general of the National Opera House in Bucharest, also sent people a personal message:

Stefan Ignat: “All I want is for people to stay at home, to keep safe from this invisible threat, to stay at home and to listen to us on the online platform.

In recent years, the National Opera House in Bucharest has delighted us with many premieres. The 2018-2019 season, for instance, concluded with a premiere of “The Troubadour by Giuseppe Verdi, staged by the Italian director Mario de Carlo. Before the premiere, we asked the director to give us a few details about the novelties in his new work, for which he also designed the stage sets, costumes and lights:

Mario de Carlo: “Its a surprise, so I wouldnt want to ruin it, but I will give you a clue: the Romanian public, the opera lovers in Bucharest, are familiar with my approach. I have a lot of respect for what the composer and librettist have done. As a director, I try to give the common opera-goers what they like. In ‘The Troubadour, I look at not only the superficial contrast, between 2 individuals or 2 souls, but also at a much deeper conflict. Its like a battlefield where 2 world views, 2 ways of living clash. On the one hand, there is Count di Lunas bleak, strict world with rigid rules, and on the other hand there is Manricos world, a light, free world that cannot accept any rules.

So stay at home, but dont forget to check out the opera shows available on the official Facebook page of the National Opera House in Bucharest, and at www.operanb.ro/operaonline, available to the public on Mondays and Thursdays at 6.30 p.m.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)