105 years are celebrated on May 25^th, 2025 from the first performance of the Romanian National Opera in Cluj-Napoca. On this occasion, the institution presents to the public a new production of the opera "Aida" by Giuseppe Verdi.

Details can be found from the baritone Florin Estefan, General Manager of the Romanian National Opera in Cluj-Napoca:

On May 25^th, 1920, the Cluj Romanian National Opera was inaugurated with the premiere of AIDA. The first director of the institution, tenor Constantin Pavel, being both the director of that production, but also the interpreter of the role of Radames. Now a new production is being prepared that was originally planned for the centenary year of the institution, but postponed due to the pandemic. What will this new montage look like that will premiere on May 24^th and who is part of the creative team? In the previous interview you said that the project was updated in many respects.

First of all, in 2020 a project was made, it was imagined by the same team that we have now by director Rareș Trifan along with Adrian Damian - set designer, who has now changed in a percentage of 90% compared to what he thought then. We maintained the same line that we always have in our traditional productions. Aida remained in ancient Egypt, but as we do in all our productions, we try to combine the modern technique of our times with the idea of the composer and the world created by the composer and librettist. As I said, the direction is signed by our colleague, Rareș Trifan, with Adrian Damian - scenography, Luiza Enescu made the costumes, conductor David Crescenzi - artistic director, and in terms of choreography - Dan Haja, we have a video content - our colleagues Magdy Hawash and director Rareș Trifan.

We have two casts, one for the 24^th, one for the 25^th, basically the anniversary show will be the 25^th. We have a first distribution, let's say with those of the house. Aida on the 24^th will be Paula Iancic - guest debuting,. She is a soloist at the Opera House in Timișoara, and on the 25^th, Miriam Clark. In Radames Daniel Magdal, and on the 25^th Samuele Simoncini. Amneris, our colleague, Liza Kadelnik, and Judith Kutasi on the 25^th. Ramfis, Corneliu Huțanu, and in the second show, the anniversary one, Roberto Scandiuzzi. Amonasro I will do it on the 24^th and Sebastian Cătană, invited on the 25^th. King of Egypt Petru Burca and Simonfi Sandor, our colleagues from the solo ensemble. Messenger Florin Pop, and the High Priestess, Roxana Selariu.

The show is monumental. If the world has been enchanted by our production of La fanciulla del West, we can amplify and multiply the effects and grandeur of AIDA by a greater number, because what our colleagues have done is downright impressive. I want to tell you that it has been an assembly job for almost a week. My technical colleagues and I stood at the scene for hours, from morning to evening, because we had a lot of technical challenges, unprecedented in what we did previously. Things are going well. We had the first general last night, tonight is another general. It connects very well and we think the public will be more than excited and we will have a proper anniversary for our institution.

The opening night gives you the opportunity to play the roleofAmonasroagain, as you already said, a role that, if I'm not mistaken, you haven't played lately. What was it like replaying this score?

I haven't played it since 2017, it seems to me. It was a show in honor of Mrs. Lucia Stanescu, the only director in the history of the institution. It was her birthday at that time and she wanted me to do this role. I think I approached him then with a bit of fear, because I did not necessarily want to do Amonasro, being a more dramatic role. I like to sing a little more lyrically, but now, with all the repertoire I have approached in recent years, I can say that I feel much better and I feel much more comfortable in this role, now approaching it again. Together with Sebastian Cătană, I think we do well. And vocally, what can I say, compared to Scarpia or Macbeth, do not put me in such great difficulty.

We are approaching the end of the 2024-2025 season. I know that the Opera Ball did not take place in the spring of this year, it was rescheduled. So, in short, what is going to happen at the Romanian National Opera in Cluj, not just until the holiday, but until the end of this calendar year?

First of all, the Opera Ball moved for New Year's Eve, because it was this political and economic turmoil for everyone, with fears of what would happen. There have been some problems with funding and the partners' fear of investing in the Ball this time. I think this event will be more than appropriate on New Year's Eve.

In terms of what we do next, next week we will have an exceptional gala with Stephen Costello back in Cluj, under the baton of Constantin Orbelian, both coming from New York. We are doing a Mario Lanza Tributeconcert, an idea that came from some discussions we had when Stephen Costello was at the Opera Ball and he wanted to do this concert. Building a friendship between us, we said: let's do thi Mario Lanza Tribute and highlight this artist in Cluj as well. A character that, we found, is not so well known to the general public, but it is a very good opportunity to bring this music sung by Mario Lanza to our stage and we think it will be a great success. The music is very cool, the musical arrangements are made by our colleague, Flaviu Mogosan, and Stephen Costello will also record a disc with these arrangements, with the program of this concert.

Opera Aperta follows, as we do every year. It is a festival that grows from year to year, there will be a lot of activities that we will definitely have the opportunity to talk about next month. And for the fall, if we have the financial possibilities, we intend to open the season with a new montage by Simon Boccanegra, directed by Roberto Scandiuzzi. Regarding ballet, we want to make a premiere of the title Fountains of Bahcisarai, which will be in November. Among them, we insert the shows we have, we will have the Puritans in November, Tosca, Macbeth, and so on. This is what we plan for the autumn. In December, the famous Winter Delights , and this time, the Ball with which we end the calendar year.