As part of the Bucharest Opera Festival - All Puccini Edition, the National Romanian Opera House in Timișoara will present Turandot on Wednesday,the 12^th of June. About the return of the artists on the Festival's stage we find out details from Cristian Rudic, director of the Timișoara Opera, in an interview with Ioana Țintea.

Mr. Cristian Rudic, how do you perceive the return of Timișoara Opera to the capital, on the stage of the Bucharest Opera Festival, in an edition dedicated exclusively to the personality of Giacomo Puccini, considering the experience of the previous year, when the institution you lead presented the operetta "Ball at the Savoy"?

I will answer very briefly. With the adrenaline and energy that the success of the opera "La servapadrona" directed by master Purcărete and scenography by Dragoș Buhagiar gave us, to begin with, and afterwards with "Ball at the Savoy" where Răzvan Mazilu directed and choreographed the show and Dragoș Buhagiar was the scenograph, with the same Mihnea Ignat at the console. We were received absolutely fantastic by the Bucharest audience and, after all, this is the ultimate goal of a theatre when it has to perform elsewhere.

We now return with Puccini's latest masterpiece, in a Puccini marathon that contains all of the great composer's works apart from "Le Villi" and "Edgar", his first two operas. From "La fanciulla" to "Turandot", they're all on the playbill, so all I can say is "Good luck to everyone who will come!" I wish them all luck in this almost complete Puccini marathon, in which we are also putting a brick there with "Turandot".

Please tell us about the production of Turandot.

The "Turandot" in Timișoara has a long tradition; this is the third production. This performance is designed by Mario de Carlo, directed by the late international tenor Corneliu Murgu. And this time we are happy to have Maestro Guido Mancusi from Vienna on the rostrum. We have him as our guest, and we also invited the Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Bucharest - we thank them once again for their collaboration. On stage we have Dragana Radakovic as Turandot, Mihaela Marcu as Liu, Bogdan Zahariea as Calaf... we usually boast about the house cast, but for the festival we have invited Dragana Radakovic. It's a production that satisfies contemporary aesthetic taste visually and renders that splendid story of Puccini's love that, as we know, closed its eyes when Liu gave upon her life on stage.

In your opinion, what is the impact of participating in this festival in promoting the Timișoara opera institution and its artists?

First of all, looking at the charts curiously, since the beginning, since they were put on sale, I saw that "Turandot" was very well received by the audience in Bucharest, which can only strengthen our hope that we will satisfy this curiosity of the public and that we will live up to expectations. In such a big city where so much is happening, to program a Puccini festival is absolutely deserving and, once again, congratulations to the organizers!