Between May 7th and 13th, 2024, Suceava hosted the first edition of the SymphOpera Festival, an event that brought together over 320 artists. We find out more from IonuțIlisoi, the director of the festival, in an interview with our colleague, Ioana Țintea.

Mr. IonuțIlisoi, during the Bright Week, Suceava got to know symphonic and opera music during the first edition of SymphOpera Fest. How did this initiative come to you?

This initiative, SymphOpera Fest, was one of our older wishes, because the North-Eastern region has an amazing potential when it comes to classical music in general. Our initial idea was to organize an opera festival in Suceava, but then, on second thought, we considered that there was also room for symphonic music. We are trying to draw the audience in a little bit, because a festival with only opera music must be very hard to grasp for an audience that is in a constant learning process. In the end we decided upon this concept of "symphopera", of bringing symphonic and opera music together with the seven major events and the 320 invited artists and we managed to have all the events sold out. This means that SymphOpera Fest was a success from the point of view of attendance. We are waiting for some feedback from the audience. It instantly became a regional festival, because there weren't only people from Suceava present and, based on this, I think this kind of show will also be in demand in the future. And, if it all goes according to plan and to our wishes, we hope there'll be a second edition of SymphOpera Fest.

What was the artistic program for the festival?

Our program was designed to be diverse from multiple perspectives and for different age groups. We also had concerts for kids, "Symphonic&StandUp Comedy", that was specifically aimed at families. It was the first event of the festival, on the third day of Easter. It was fantastic and very well-received by the audience. We presented the opera "Tosca" on May 10th, a performance with the soloists, the choir, the children's choir, the orchestra of the Romanian National Opera, Iași, conducted by maestro Daniel Jinga. On May 11th we had an incredible concert, "Latino Symphonic", alongside the "Serghei Lunchevici" National Philharmonic from Chișinău. On May 12th we had a "Gala Concert", as we called it, because it was also on a Sunday and we tried to bring in the people who were also directly involved in this festival. We organized the "A Tempo: Old Romanian Hits" concert, featuring the beloved Monica Anghel, the soloists of the Romanian National Opera, Cluj, Florin Estefan, Hector Lopez, Cristian Mogoșan, EusebiuHuțan, who is actually from Suceava, together with the Concordia Orchestra&Band from Cluj, with ourselves, with the CiprianPorumbescu Choir, Suceava, and with maestro Andrei Tudor for the first time at the conductor's stand in Suceava. There were a lot of events that were a first for Suceava and a lot of them for Moldavia as well.

Can you also please tell us about the educational purpose that you had in mind during the organization of the festival?

Although the entire festival was designed to attract and to educate a certain type of audience or to help them discover these musical genres, the concert for children, "Animal Carnival", performed by the Liber Artist Orchestra alongside conductor DalmaToadere from Cluj-Napoca was specifically made for grades 0-4. The children really enjoyed this event. There was also "A Composer at the Carnival" on May 7th, also with the Liber Artist Orchestra and Dalma, with Bogdan Bob Rădulescu as special guest in the shoes of Camille Saint-Saëns. He managed to win the public's heart with his first-class humoristic moments.

On the long run, what other plans do you have for SymphOpera Fest that could make it indispensable for the cultural life of Suceava?

We haven't planned the festival further than the present moment. We've focused our energy on making the first edition a success. We will also take into consideration the public's opinion. We will surely have to try and think about organizing a second edition already.