29th of November 2024 - 100 years since the passing into eternity of one of the great Italian composers - Giacomo Puccini.

The Giacomo Puccini Centenary is one of the highlights of opera house seasons around the world.

The Italian Cultural Institute organized today, on April 22nd in 2024, a press conference on the events it holds on the occasion of the Puccini centenary, events that involve the most important Romanian institutions. The National Operas of Iași, Bucharest, Cluj, the Philharmonics of Bucharest, Ploiești, Pitești, as well as Artexim, the institution organizing the George Enescu International Festival and Competition, were represented in this press conference.

They talked about the premiere of Tosca, which took place at the Romanian National Opera in Cluj on the 20th-21st of April 2024, directed by Matteo Mazzoni, as well as about another Cluj production La Fanciulla del West, and about the premiere of Turandot at the National Opera in Iași, scheduled for the 1st-2nd of June, which has never been staged in Iași before.

At the Bucharest National Opera, the Bucharest Opera Festival will bring only Puccini operas from the 7th to 16th of June, and the opening of the 2024-2025 season will be Manon Lescaut, a co-production with Teatro Reggio in Parma and the Puccini Festival in Torre Del Lago. Giacomo Puccini sleeps his last sleep in this small Italian town. Romania's national day will be celebrated by the Bucharest National Opera with a Puccini gala staged at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, starring Ștefan Pop, Valentina Naforniță and Ruxandra Donose.

Puccini's year will also be celebrated at the National Opera in Timișoara, with Turandot, staged on the 26th of April as part of the Timișoara Music Festival.

The Philharmonics of Ploiești, Pitești and Sibiu are also organising concerts as part of the Puccini Year; the Bucharest Philharmonic is hosting a concert on the 13th of May organised by the Italian Cultural Institute in partnership with Artexim - the Camerata Regala and the Preludiu Choir will perform under the baton of conductor Tito Ceccherini, with arias, vocal-symphonic and orchestral moments. An event that you will be able to listen to on Radio România Muzical during May 2024.

On the 14th and 15th of June, the National University of Music in Bucharest is hosting a symposium dedicated to soprano Hariclea Darclee, organised in partnership with the University of Milan, and from 1 to 4 June, the Bucharest National Opera is hosting a masterclass by the famous Italian soprano Barbara Frittoli.

So Puccini is on the radar of most Romanian musical institutions. And at the Sala Radio, where on the 23rd of February a concert including Messa di Gloria was organised, together with choirs and orchestral moments, performed by the Radio Academic Choir and the National Radio Orchestra, conducted by Cristian Sandu.

And of course, the Puccini Year will also be celebrated on Radio România Muzical from September to December 2024.