The 5th “Life is Beautiful!” Musical Performing Arts International Festival will run Nov 8-1. Organized by the „Ion Dacian” National Operetta Theater, it has already become a traditional Bucharest autumn event.
The 11days of the festival will be a display of magnificent performances, including display the musical Gala, concerts of all genres, from the Portuguese fado sung by Dulce Pontes and the cabaret noir of the beautifully mad „The Tiger Lillies”, who have already built an audience of their own in Bucharest during the previous editions of the festival, to the energetic jazz played in the most unconventional places possible by “Old Fish Jazz Band”, some old friends of the operetta present at every festival edition so far, as well as a a music repertoire including doinas <traditional Romanian folk songs> and very old Balkan and Persian songs performed by Grigore Lese and his guests. Traditional operetta, classical and religious music, given the start of the Christmas fast are also featured in the festival.Along with the events that marked the previous editions, “Traditional Evenings” and the live broadcast section aired by Romania Cultural Radio Station, Gala “Ion Dacian” Junior, a children-dedicated version of the “Ion Dacian” Trophy is added this year.The successful performance last year of the workshop held by Thomas Richards, former apprentice of Jerzy Grotowski, is being organized this year too, along with plenty of connected events and activities, such as conferences, book launches, exhibitions and workshops for grownups and children alike. The theatre public, too, will enjoy two excellent performances “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” directed by Radu Afrim, the enfant terrible of Romanian theater, a production by the Vasile Alecsandri” National Theater in Iasi, and „The Full Monty” directed by well-known choreographer Razvan Mazilu, a performance by the “Mihai Eminescu” National Theater in Timisoara, a musical based on the celebrated British film bearing the same name. «Life is Beautiful!» is now in its fifth year. It may not seem many, yet, for us, these are the best years of our lives, the years during which we’ve managed to highlight a cultural event that brings the musical show in the limelight, and that in a Bucharest over-satiated by all sorts of events, and this is no small thing, given that trying to bring something new in a field where it appears that almost everything has been said and done is an achievement in itself,” Razvan Ioan Dinca, general manager “Ion Dacian” National Operetta Theater, and its artistic director, Alina Moldovan, said.
