The message of the baritone that brings the work to the street: “Do not cut from culture, otherwise we risk being beaten in buses because they are intellectuals”

Bariton Florin Estefan, the director of the Romanian Opera in Cluj who organizes this week the 9th edition of the festival that brings lyrical music on the streets, in markets and other unique places, talks about the challenges of culture during austerity, but also of the Tiktok era.

Florin Estefan has a message for governors. Photo: Cluj Opera

The Romanian National Opera from Cluj-Napoca goes out, between June 23 and 29, to meet the public with an offer of non-refusal: unique artistic events, of European rank and with free access, on unconventional scenes, within the Aperta Opera Festival.

The Clujians thus have a royal music, within the Aperta Opera Festival. The art leaves the room and arrives on the street, in the park, in the garden and in the heart of the city.

On the main stage of Unirii Square will be staged shows such as Puccini Gala, Traviata or Maria de Buenos Aires. Then, in unique places such as the Mina Museum, the Garden of the Radisson Blu hotel, the French Cultural Institute, the Casino Urban Culture Center, Iulius Park or the Interior Court of the Central headquarters of the UBB will be organized shows for all tastes, from fanfare music, Jazz Tribut Frank Sinatra, tango show, piano recital, etc.

From 26 to June 29, in the park behind the work, there will be a thematic fair, with film screenings, interactive activities and children's shows.

“Adevărul” discussed one of the most beloved festivals of Cluj, the Appeta Opera, but also about the challenges of the Romanian National Opera in Cluj with the manager of the institution, the baritone Florin Estefan.

See the Aperta Opera program here.

Opera, Frank Sinatra, Tango, Movies

What are the special projects of this year of the Romanian Opera?

First of all, we have to finish the season. The aperta work will be full of events, with a much richer repertoire than in previous years. In the space behind the work of the work, we will make a fair of the work. We want to make a concept “Opera Fair” and to have activities with some boxes done around the institution. And on the stage behind the opera, for the first time since this scene was put, we organize a few evenings of the Cinema Opera. In a few evenings we will streaming movies from 7 pm for children like Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, Anastasia, etc., and from 9 pm we will have musical themes like Caruso, Farinelli Şamd. We will have a number of 500-1,000 chairs, so that people can come to the Opera Park in the evening and watch some shows, some old movies related to the Universe of Music.

We want to have this project every year, and in the week of the Aperta Opera, the boxes with the traders we will invite to be present. We will have all kinds of activations and all kinds of projects related to children and activities for children related to our musical activity. We really want to grow this area and if we succeed, even during Christmas, of December, we are already imagining an outbreak with biblical characters and a space where a very cozy work can be sung, here in the park. I hope we succeed!

At the Aperta Opera, as I said, there will be a lot of events, not only on the main stage of Unirii Square. This year we will start with a series of events in … various places, for example in the UBB yard, from the Rectorate. We will have two evenings there, a French music gala with the young people from the Lia Hubic opera study, they will sing a repertoire of French music. We will have an evening of the cello, a concert with only 30-40 cello. Cell'Opera is called, there will be all kinds of famous themes performed by an orchestra by the cello conducted by Tiberiu Soare. He comes a famous Italian baritone, Lucio Gallo, with a jazz band, with whom, years ago, they were playing on the ship and will hold a concert in Iulius Park, a tribute Frank Sinatra.

We will have an evening of Cluj Tango Night, we will have a Jazz band from Los Angeles. After that we will have at the Festival Opera in Iași, soloists and the Choir of the Opera for the Puccini Gala. The opera from Timisoara also comes with a ballet show, we will present Maria de Buenos Aires, a resumption of this tango show, and traviata, in the closing of the festival. We will have the work of three parallels brought from Bucharest, from the Excelsior Theater.

Then we came up with an idea to make a series of Midnight Concerts (concerts from midnight). These concerts will start after the activity is over at the main scene in Unirii Square. It will be a concert at the Mina Museum with the seasons of Vivaldi. Another one will be with Chopin night with a Mexican pianist who is called Vladimir Petrov, he was born in Mexico, his parents are Russians, but he has a childhood there and he is a manhattan School of Music. He's an extraordinarily good pianist. One of the concerts will take place on June 28 and will be in the interior courtyard at Radisson Blu – we will make a two -hated concert evening by Alisa Sadikova, an extraordinary artist who studied at St. Petersburg and Juilliard School in New York, and our colleague Delia Băcneanu. Such a concert is unique, because it is very difficult to achieve. The tools are extremely expensive – a harp costs 30,000 euros, so there are not many artists who are on the harp and there are not many musical arrangements in general to include this tool. This is the program from the Aperta Opera, after which we go on leave.

What will happen in September?

From September the artistic work begins. These days we started the production sessions for a new premiere of opening the season, namely Simone Boccanegra de Verdi in the direction of Roberto Scandiuzzi, the scenography Anca Pintilie. A classic mounting. I saw the project and it looks beautiful, classic, clean, it is an extremely beautiful work and it is worth enhancing. We will have a premiere, if everything goes well, in November, ballet. I want to have a ballet premiere annually and this year we want to make the fountain in Bahchisarai, a title that has not been playing from the 70s to us. Superb music, in the choreography of the master Vasile Solomon and for the first time in us, in the scenography of Dragos Buhagiar. I trust it will be a very beautiful show. Dragoș is a phenomenal scenographer and I think that with Master Solomon he will make a special show. Then we end the year, with a special concert on the National Day. We have already thought of who to invite, to make a bit of repertoire Maria Tanase and some crossovers. And then Winter Delights and if it will be funding, as we are in discussions, we end the New Year with the Opera Ball.

“What to cut from the culture? Anyway, we are talking about the survival budget”

I want to talk a little about the crisis announced in the budgetary area. How do you get ready for austerity measures?

First of all, the government must also prepare the Ministry of Culture. But let's talk real, how much is the budget impact of culture on the state budget? It's 1%, it's infim. What to cut from there? Are we talking about a survival budget at culture anyway? I don't see the meaning. You have to cut where it is to be cut, that there are places to cut. Probably it will affect us, but we from year to year, I speak of our institution, we always have a budget that at the beginning of the year is smaller, but by rectification, with small and shy steps has increased. But let's understand each other, we are not talking about plenty. Only you can hardly make a mounting, take a glitter and pay your expenses.

From the private environment, how much can the work budget be supplemented?

From the private environment, given that fiscal facility regarding the profit tax, we have managed to capacity some companies that support the Aperta Opera Festival. Because the budget at the Aperta Opera, with more and more events with scenotechnics, sound and other expenses, must increase year by year. Indeed, the allocation from the City Hall increased, but, for example, from the Ministry of Culture, I received 30% compared to as long as I received last year. And I don't understand why. The City Hall, indeed, supported us. The County Council gave us 10,000 lei. I understand that the County Council has no money. That's the situation. And the rest, a 60% of the budget, is from sponsorships. There are companies that we managed to have close and directed from the profit tax. But we are still with a considerable minus. Companies from Cluj, Transylvania and even multinational based in Bucharest.

“You risk beating people on the bus because you are intellectual or progressive.”

Do you think the work can make a contribution to the elimination of the split from the Romanian society that we see especially after the last two rows of elections?

First of all, these cleavage comes from non -educated Romania. From here comes the split. We have been talking about the educated Romania for years to draw the conclusion now that Romania is uneducated. And then I wonder, “Ok, at my level, what can I do?” I came out of the shell and took the work in the street and attract the categories of public who would not have trampled in the theater for ever, that they do not think that they fit the landscape in the first place. We manage to do, to attract and so on, but I think this should be a country project.

I also said this: army, health, education, culture, they must be the pillars and all the other areas that produce money to produce money to invest there, because investing in people and in their culture and education, we invest in the future of this nation. Otherwise we wake up with the same problems we have had so far. And no, I do not talk about politics, that I do not give the opinion in the area, I talk about tasting, about instability, about the cleavage of the society, about the bus and you look at you and I say “this is intellectual, it is my enemy”, and you risk beating the people on the bus. I read some posts from some people from Florești, in which the story of a lady is afraid to go home, in the evening, because she looks I do not know who, I do not know how it would be progressive. Also from this education, we wake up that we are anti -European, we who live in Europe.

That's why I say I don't think it should be a desire for the new government to cut from culture. Not from culture, not from education, not from health and not from the army. And I would like whoever the Minister of Culture comes to be a not beaten person, but with enough weight to be able to support the ministry and support what we do. Okay, I do not know if everyone does, but at least I speak of our institution, that we are silent to go out, to attract, to promote the lyrical genre, the Romanian culture, the culture in general. Let's do education, go to children, attract children. And there is a success and there are results.

“We try to combine the AI, the technology, what we do”

It is still a challenge for everything that means culture, not only in Romania, but everywhere. In the digital era in which many people stand on the phone and watch short videos, how do you manage to bring people to culture, to the work?

We used this very much. We took advantage of the pandemic at that time and instead of making premieres with spectators, we made virtual premieres and invested in a video studio. We bought a broadcasting system, we have a studio where we do records, we have all kinds of things. I used technology, for example, at Aida. All the props that was on stage was made up of children from the Museum of Egypt, from photos that were then molded 3D and printed, after which they were finished in the workshop. And they seemed real, although they were plastic printed after objects in the Museum of Egypt, for example. We try to combine the AI, the technology, what we do. In addition … with the help of the video department we have we try to be as inventive and creative as possible, just to be present in social media. As much as possible, as much as possible. And I see that it has an extraordinary effect, that it comes public in the room.

It criticizes me and each other that are not the posters by name. I can't put a sausage name on the poster. In 2025 I cannot, I have not done this since 2015. My idea was to make the man curious to see a picture, to see a title, a QR code or a site and to go to inform and visit us online, in Social Media, on the website, on the agency, from where all the information can be taken. And it worked.