At a loose end? BR brings you the best of Bucharest’s cultural highlights for the weekend ahead.

OPERA

La Boheme – Giacomo Puccini

Bucharest National Opera

March 23, 19.00

After the premiere of the tenor Razvan Sararu on the stage of the ONB in the leading role of the play, Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme” is staged again with a cast that includes  Liviu Indricău, Simona Neagu, Irina Iordăchescu, Ionuţ Pascu, Vasile Chişiu, Mihnea Lamatic, Stefan Schuller, Paul Basacopol, Ionut Gavrila, Adrian Ionescu, Constantin Negru. The conductor will be Vlad Conta.

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CLASSICAL MUSIC

Spanish concert

Radio Hall

March 22, 19.00

Cellist Razvan Suma will bring Spanish flavor to Bucharest, together with the Spanish pianist Josu Okinena (in picture). Cellist Razvan Suma will take the audience on a trip to Spain with his concert “A Spanish evening with Razvan Suma”. The two artists will perform pieces by great Spanish composers Gaspar Cassado, Joaquin Nin, Aita Donostia, Anton Larrauri, Lorenzo Ondarra and Manuel De Falla.

PARTY

Latino Party

Doncafe Brasserie

March 23, 20.30

7 Ankara Street, Dorobanti Square

Doncafe Brasserie organizes a latino party, with Bin Marquetti (voice), Gustavo Alcantara (piano) and Raubel Torres (percussion).

PERFORMANCE PROJECTIONS

La Traviata – Register at Opera Australia

Grand Cinema Digiplex

March 21, 20.00

“La Traviata” is a tragic love story told on a great music in an extravagant and romantic show. This huge production involve spectacular scenery, beautiful costumes, fireworks and a chandelier of 9 m tall that brightens the scene, providing an impressive view to the Opera and the port of Sydney. The conductor of the performance is Julian Kovatchev.

EXHIBITION

The rest is tomorrow

Galateca Gallery

Until March 31

The fashion exhibition The Rest Is Tomorrow was initiated by ICR London, at the invitation of British Council and British Fashion Council to participate in the International Fashion Showcase section, part of the London Fashion Week manifestation.

Six outstanding Romanian designers were selected by the Romanian Cultural Institute to represent Romania in a competition involving 27 countries. Andreea Badal (Murmur), Lucian Broscatean, Irina Schrotter, Dinu Bodiciu, Doina Levintza and Carla Szabo, along with Kim Attila, the designer of the exhibition were highly appreciated by the jury made up of famous international professional critics : Sarah Mower (Vogue U.S.), Julian Roberts (BBC Blast online editor, fashion designer and professor at the Royal College of Art), Anna Orsini (expert British Fashion Council), Tamsin Blanchard (Telegraph fashion critic) and Oriole Cullen (Victoria and Albert Museum) .

Thus, Romania was on the short list for “Emerging Talent Award 2013″ with such countries as Argentina, Austria, Estonia, Netherlands, Portugal, Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) and Switzerland. This prize was awarded by the British Council and the British Fashion Council. After long debates, in which Romania was considered for the 1st place, The Rest is Tomorrow exhibition was awarded the 2nd place and the full specialized media and jury attention. The jury was impressed by the Romanian concepts and designs. The prize award ceremony took place on February 17th at the prestigious Somerset House, the headquarters of London Fashion Week.

Lights and shadows

Instituto Cervantes

Until March 31

The Spanish painter Ima Montoya will present at Instituto Cervantes her latest exhibition, “Lights and shadows”. Montoya was born and raised on the banks of the Nervion, famous for fishing fleets, ship building and steel production, a place of industry. Like most people from the Nervion she has inherited from this backdrop of hard work and industry she brings to her work the attributes of strength, energy and a sense of purpose. Also like many of her people before her she has traveled across the sea in search of new possibilities.

The artist has lived and worked in Bilbao, Madrid, London, Tokyo, Moscow and now the journey continues in Budapest. A nomadic life has not been a handicap for her but a platform to explore and assimilate influences from diverse cultures. The result is clearly displayed in her work, full of energy, rhythm and movement, never remaining still and where the only constant is change. Influences, techniques, forms, concepts and even language are put into her melting pot. Spanish, Japanese, Euskera, English, Russian and Hungarian, interlaced and overlapping form part of the cultural cocktail that characterizes her work which is vibrant and in which we feel alive.

Testimonials. The Frescoes from the Arges Monastery

National Museum of Art of Romania

Until May 26

The Arges Monastery, a flagship example of Romanian culture, was restored between 1875 and 1882 under the supervision of architect André Lecomte du Noüy, a practitioner of French conservationist principles. The original mural painting had to make room for an entirely new one: only 35 fragments were considered worth preserving. Some 31 of them were restored between 1990 and 2012 and are now on show together for the first time.

DISCOVER BUCHAREST

Bellu Cemetery, Bucharest – walking tour

March 23, 11.00-13.30

Reservations: v.mandache@gmail.com / 0040 (0)728.323.272

Tour available in Romanian and English, RON 30

The guide offers a less conventional subject of after-life or funerary architecture found within the confines of Bellu Cemetery, the most famous and exquisitely embellished necropolis of Romania, the equivalent in these parts of Europe of Paris’ Père Lachaise or London’s Highgate cemeteries.

Gara de Nord area, Bucharest– walking tour

March 24, 11.30-14.00

Reservations: v.mandache@gmail.com / 0040 (0)728.323.272

Tour available in Romanian and English, RON 30

The tour offers a guide through this architecturally diverse area surrounding Bucharest’s communication hub with the rest of Romania, the grandiose Northern Train Station (Gara de Nord), an edifice combining stern classical outlines with vitalist Art Deco details.

GOING OUT

Kunnai Restaurant

6 Copilului Street

Kunnai is a Thai contemporary cuisine retreat in the heart of Bucharest and is conveniently located in Strada Copilului 6, facing a quiet and beautiful children’s park. A hidden piece of modern Thailand in the midst of Eastern Europe, Kunnai offers you an intricate variety of Thai dishes, carefully designed and crafted by Anne Ampawan her Thai Chef.

Oana Vasiliu