The second edition of the Bucharest Opera Festival starts Friday, June 16th 2023. It is a series about the choir master Daniel Jinga, general manager of the Bucharest National Opera House, had spoken within the Perpetuum mobile edition from June 8th.

Bucharest Opera Festival returns with a second edition between June 16th and June 24th on the stage of the Bucharest National Opera House. This is the topic of our dialogue. Starting from next Friday, then, at the end of the season, we will be delighted by opera, operetta, ballet and musical performances scheduled over the period of nine consecutive evenings, bringing in the spotlight plenty orchestras, mixed choirs, ballet companies, dozens of top soloists and musicians of the current music scene until the first show, a production of the institution you manage. May You tell us about the musicians invited this year by the Bucharest National Opera House. What do they propose to the Bucharest's public?

As you alredy mentioned, it is a diversified program. There will be nine consecutive days of opera, ballet and musical performances, we will also have two opera houses from abroad, I am referring here to the National Opera and Ballet Theater in Belgrade and the National Opera in Budapest, the Hungarian State Opera. In my opinion, it is a complex program. We will open as hosts on Friday, June 16th, with the show The Marriage of Figaro, directed by Ethan Schmeisser, a show co-produced with the opera from Tel Aviv. Furthermore, the National Opera and Ballet Theater in Belgrade will present Manon Lescaut by Puccini, a show that we do not have in the repertoire and we are happy that it will be presented . Cluj-Napoca Hungarian Opera will attend for once again, on Sunday, June 18th. We enjoyed their presence last year as well. They come with the Prince Bluebeard's castle and The Miraculous Mandarin, so with avant-garde niche titles, again a joy for the Bucharest public to listen something that they cannot usually listen to at the Bucharest National Opera House. The National Opera and Ballet Theatre "Oleg Danovski" from Constanta attends also this year with Pearl Fishing, on Monday, June 19th. On Tuesday, June 20th,The National Romanian Opera House Timișoara presents Ball in Savoy and the Opera House Brasov on June 21st, plays the show Cosi fan tutte. The new show that again enjoys great success is that of the Romanian National Opera Iași, The Merry Widow, directed by Andrei Șerban, who attends as director for the second consecutive year at the Bucharest Opera Festival. Then, on Friday, June 23th, the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest with the long-awaited Pelléas et Mélisande and finally, Ion Dacian National Operetta and Musical Theater being in a way, also the host, because he is in the Bucharest theater, he will close this series of performances with the musical Kiss me Kate. So, as I mentioned, a very complex program, it is a joy to be together again and especially it is a joy in the fact that it happens for the second year in a row, so it has the chance to become a tradition festival, regardless of the weather and times, no matter how things go economically, we try to take precautions and make this festival ceaseless and grow from year to year.

As you previously mentioned there will be a festival opening with The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As far as I understood it is a premiere of the Bucharest National Opera House. It this correct?

Yes.

What are the data of this production? I would like to talk extensively about the staging and the band of soloists.

First of all, the staging is provided by Sir David Pountney. He is, so to speak, an international director and we are trying to bring as many high-profile directors to the Bucharest National Opera House. The scenographer is Leslie Travers. In fact, he chose this whole team of creators, because they are the ones who created the performance in Tel Aviv. This is the set designer, then the costume set designer is Ula Shevtsov, the lighting designer is Eyal Levi and our assistant director Claudia Machedon, an the stage movement assistant Beatrice Șerbănescu. Ethan Schmeisser, as I said, will sit at the conducting desk and perform the production from a musical point of view. Figaro is Andrei Cocîrlea, a guest, a young man whom I consider to be of great perspective and I hope he will confirm that on this occasion.The director and the conductor are already very pleased with him, Susanna is Oana Șerban, the Countess is Oana Andra, Count Almaviva is Adrian Mărcan, a soloist with great experience and longevity at the Bucharest National Opera House , Cherubino is Mihaela Ișpan, one of the most suitable mezzo-sopranos we have at the moment for this role, Don Bartolo is Filip Panait, Marcellina is Sidonia Nica, Don Basilio is Liviu Indricău, Curzio is Valentin Racoveanu, Antonio is Vasile Chișiu and Barbarina is Andreea Novac.Basically we have a one hundred percent Romanian distribution and we also used talented young guests. We preferred to use a team of foreign creators to create costumes, sets, directing, lighting design and to be somehow, from a creative point of view in the service of local talents that we want to promote in front of the Romanian or international public.

The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be the first show at the Bucharest Opera Festival. The series will end on June 24th, but it will not be the last event of the current season. You end this year with another premiere. On June 30th and July 1st. What is it about?

It is about the show Revolution composed by Adrian Iorgulescu and prepared and directed by the conductor Cristian Mandeal. The director of this show will be the young Alexandru Nagy, who is already a very important director lately at the Bucharest National Opera House. It will be a coupe show, because he will play with the ballet at the market by Mihail Jora. It is a joy that we can participate at the season with a Romanian show. I said it every time, the Bucharest National Opera House also has the mission and duty to promote contemporary local creation, because in this way we can preserve both our identity, as well as national and international value.

Of course, a summer vacation is coming, but what does the beginning of the season 2023-2024 for the Bucharest National Opera look like, as much as you can tell us at the moment?

I can tell you that we are preparing two more premieres. One is the premiere of Oedipus' work directed by Stefano Poda, directed by Tiberiu Soare. This show will be played during the George Enescu Festival, after which it will remain in the repertoire of the Bucharest National Opera.

As I mentioned, it is a duty to keep this title which is a very complex one, very difficult to stage, very difficult to keep from a musical point of view and if we do not do this as Romanians, we cannot expect that others will do it, although Oedipus is now played a lot internationally and I believe that the George Enescu Festival has done a great service to Romanian culture and music by promoting George Enescu and his creation in the world. In addition, we will open the show with La Clemenza di Tito, the last work written by Mozart and the direction will belong to the director Tompa Gabor, again, a very important director for Romania and I am glad that we are completing this pantheon of the directors who staged at the Bucharest National Opera.

Thank you very much for your presence at the Perpetuum mobile, I wish yougood luck.

Thank you and I am always waiting for your invitation because we are happy to promote our shows in front of your listeners.

Thank you too. The conductor Daniel Jinga was the General Manager of the Bucharest National Opera House.