OBSERVATOR CULTURAL - Spiritul critic in actiune

Ciprian Ciucu talks about the Romanian teachers’ 50 per cent pay hike, recently ratified by Parliament and just as soon obviated by lack of funds.
Ciprian Stanescu comments on the Government’s poor management in the teachers’ salary crisis.
Bedros Horasangian writes: Romanian authorities would do well to develop a major preoccupation with their fellow citizens in the Diaspora, who happen to belong to an EU and NATO member nation.

 

Latest

 

The Observer goes classic and reports on the 1st annual EUROCLASSICA International Conference, interviews Alfred Reitermayer, president of EUROCLASSICA Federation, and Gabriela Cretia, vice-president of the Classical Studies Society. The conference took place in Bucharest from September 25 through September 29.

 

Mihai Eminescu, between Myth and Reality

 

The Observer launches a series of discussions centering on the late Romantic poet, Mihai Eminescu. Carmen Musat, Bianca Burta-Cernat, Dana Pirvan-Jenaru, Antonio Patras, Silvia Dumitrache, Serban Axinte and Ovidiu Pecican contribute essays on oeuvre and criticism.

 

Supplement

 

The Observer publishes a supplement dedicated to the 2nd TAMper2 Theatrical Meeting at the Andrei Muresanu Theatre in Sfintu Gheorghe. Iulia Popovici writes the introduction and interviews Florin Vidamski, general director of the Romanian Language Theatre in the  Sfintu Gheorghe. The Observer publishes excerpts from Gianina Carbunariu’s play Viitorul suna bine (The Future Sounds Good) and from Viktor Bodo’s Mautocatamdisparut, translated from Magyar by Rita Sebestyen. The playwrights Carbunariu and Bodo participated in the event. The meeting ran from September 16 through September 20.

 

Literary history

 

Geo Serban writes about the contributors to unu, celebrated magazine of the Romanian avant-garde.

Book review

 

Cezar Gheorghe reads Jonathan Safran Foer’s Totul este luminat (Everything Is Illuminated, translated by Fraga Gusin. Bucharest: Humanitas, 2008) and Extrem de tare si incredibil de aproape (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel, translated by Andra Matzal. Bucharest: Humanitas).

 

Polemics

 

Adina Dinitoiu responds to Paul Cernat’s article about the younger generation of Romanian writers in last week’s Observator Cultural (no. 443).

 

Theatre
Iulia Popovici and Doru Mares comment on Theo Herghelegiu’s Welcome to Romania, which premiered at the Mihai Popescu Theatre in Tirgoviste, on October 1.

Film
Valerian Sava argues that a fair competition among film projects to be financed by the National Council of Cinematography would  necessarily be open to the public.

 

Visual arts
Mihai Plamadeala goes to the opening of Ion Dumitru’s in memoriam show at Galleria Posibila. The exhibit, which includes keys, photos, and plastic tables, can be seen through November 23.
Dana Altman reads Nikolai M. Tarabukin’s Sensul icoanei (The Meaning of the Icon, Bucharest: Sofia Publishing, 2008), translated by Vladimir Bulat.
Cosmin Ungureanu comments on Line and Color. 17th Century Florentine Drawings. Chef d’oeuvres from the Louver. September 25, 2008 – January 11, 2009 at the Romania National Art Museum.
Maria-Magdalena Crisan goes to Dan Bota’s Sense and Sensibility at Veroniki Gallery, from September 25 through October 19.

 

Music
Anca Florea attends the opening of the 2008-9 opera season in Timisoara and Craiova which kicked off with Gounod’s Faust (September 30) and Puccini’s Tosca (premiered on October 1) respectively.
Alexandru Sipa tells us about the 3rd “Accordion White Nights” International Festival at ARCUB in Bucharest from September 26 through September 28.

 

Focus

 

Mihai Fulger interviews Juan Pablo Zaramella and John Dilworth, who participated in Anim’est Film Festival, running at the Scala and Elvira Popescu Cinemas through October 12.