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

OPERA

Wagner-Verdi Gala

Bucharest National Opera

March 30-31, 19.00

The rival legacies of classical pioneers Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner both celebrate bicentenaries in 2013, and the Bucharest National Opera, along with several other musical institutions, is paying tribute with recordings and performances around the world.

The ceremonial evenings held by the Bucharest National Orchestra and Choir present to classical music lovers internationally renowned guests such as Valentina Nafornita, Alexandru Badea, Dan Paul Dumitrescu and Marius Vlad Budoiu. Both performances will be under the wand of Cristian Mandeal, a Romanian who studied with Herbert von Karajan in Berlin and with Sergiu Celibidache in Munich.

EXHIBITION

The Human Body

Antipa Museum

Until June 30

One of the most realistic exhibitions in the world, The Human Body, will stop for the first time in Bucharest, at Antipa Museum, from March 22 to June 30. The exhibition includes more than 200 pieces – human bodies which through dissection of organs and tissue offer a three dimensional perspective of the miracle of the human body.

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

Art in Bucharest tour: artists’ studios tour

March 30, 14.00

Meeting point: Sf. Anton Square

Reservations: mircea@artinbucharest.com / 0746 11 00 33.

Tour available in Romanian and English, RON 80

With “Art in Bucharest”, you can discover your creativity by participating to an art tour in Bucharest – painting and music. During three hours and a half we’ll visit in their homes Vasile Mureșan –Murivale – painter, Irina Sarbu jazz vocalist and Adrian Naidin, violoncello.

Bucharest as the Little Paris of the Balkans – architectural walking tour

March 30, 11.00-13.30

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

Tour available in Romanian and English, RON 30

The tour offers a guide on the subject of the late c19th – early c20th French and western historicist style architecture of Bucharest, which made the city known to the rest of world as the “Little Paris of the Balkans”, a phenomenon that imprinted the character of Romania’s capital ever since. The tour may be of interest to any of you visiting the city as a tourist or on business looking to find out more about its fascinating historic architecture and identity.

Mosilor quarter of Bucharest– walking tour

March 31, 11.30-14.00

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

Tour available in Romanian and English, RON 30

The guide offers a guide through one of the most picturesque areas of historic Bucharest, that has known a spectacular development after the unification of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in the aftermath of the Crimean War. It is located on the road stemming from the old city toward Moldavia, known in the olden times as “The Highway” (“Drumul Mare”). Its name comes from that of the famous Mosilor fair, held outside Bucharest’s walls, where traders and peasants from Moldavia and north-eastern Wallachia came with their goods and products.

GOING OUT

Gambrinus Brewery (in picture)

38 Bd. Regina Elisabeta

More than a century since its first opening, the Gambrinus beerhouse, where Romanian artists would congregate at the beginning of the 20th century, has come back to life in the center of Bucharest. More details here: http://business-review.ro/sidebar-featured/history-is-on-tap-at-gambrinus-brewery/

Oana Vasiliu

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