Titus Pop

As one of my LPs I created was dedicated to the emotions the audience experiences while watching a musical theatre, I recently experienced this in Bucharest where I attended the Romanian language variant of The Phantom of the Opera composed by A.L.Webber. It was a dream coming true after many years.

The show produced by the Bucharest National Opera and directed by Razvan Dinca was a mega-artistic event that aligns Romania with Broadway and the West End.  Accompanied by the Bucharest National Opera’s   Orchestra and Choir conducted by Daniel Jinga, the mega-show was a real success.  Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit music, which has been making history for over 35 years, was, in my opinion, equally beautiful in Romanian. The emotion of the chandelier that collapses on the first four serious measures was equally percussive. Tears have every chance to climb from the neck to the eyes in the presence of aesthetic wonder, enthusiasm is at high levels. The sound of the musical instruments is the most fulfilled round and truly seductive voice.  You leave humming, „All I ask of you” or simply you no longer get out of the sound background of your thoughts for the following days. The mirage of artistic grandeur makes its effect and easily seduces the audience.

The actors manage to rise to the occasion. Kyrie Mendel who plays Raoul manages to become a credible vocal hero, without finding, however, an interpretation other than technical and conscientious. The chemistry he has with his stage partner is why „All I ask of you” becomes an emotional scene, and his stage presence keeps him in a safe area, as a plausible and easily assimilated figure. Irina Baiant is in the role of Christine and has the advantage of an elegant beauty, and her vocal performance conveys the emotion of the heavy score she plays. With a lot of gestures and a posture that amplifies its fragility, the way it builds the relationship with its partners offers consistency to a one-sided role, which it speculates with charm. Adrian Nour (Phantom) is the real star of the show – the richness of nuances, which he adds to the musical performance, conveys a lot of emotion.

All in all, „Phantom of the opera” (Romanian translation) was a grandiose show – as we always wanted; „as abroad”. It has all the ingredients to be called a success worthy of many enthusiastic epithets and attributes. In the end, what one feels are  the beautiful chords, the emotion of the story told in beautiful snapshots, the chorus hummed for days and the  roles excellently played by the Romanian actors.