Entertainment & Events in Bucharest

Opera
The world famous Romanian opera, found on B-dul Kogalniceanu, is one of the city’s defining cultural landmarks. While the current construction betrays a socialist-realist designer (Octav Doicescu who completed the building in 1953), the building is nevertheless impressive, with three superb arcades masking a wonderful entrance hall and common areas, and staircases that whisk the 1200 spectators to their seats with the minimum of fuss. However, work is needed on the building, and fast. The auditorium itself is in rather poor shape, while the boxes are anything but luxurious. Performances vary, but are never less than good; many are outstanding. Ticket prices are cheap (a seat in a box will cost not more than 20.00 lei) and as a result the house is usually packed. You can buy tickets in advance from the box office at the opera, open daily from 10:00 – 12:00. More at www.operanb.ro.

Music
For classical music look no further than the Atheneum, home of the George Enescu Philharmonic.

Traditional music is very much alive in Romania, especially in the countryside, and the variations in musical styles between the different ethnicities and regions are fascinating. In Bucharest, a number of touristy restaurants (Caru’ cu Bere, Hanul lui Manuc, Doamnei) have folklore programmes featuring traditional musicians.
Romania has couple of dinosaurs of rock, originating from the 1970s and 1980s, including Phoenix, Iris and Holograf. In recent years a number of younger bands have emerged, Zdob si Zdub (actually Moldovan) and Sarmelele Reci undoubtedly being the best and most popular at the moment. Others worth tracking down include Vank and Parlament. Then there’s the deluge of girlie and boy pop and hip hop bands praising the shapes, sounds and behaviour of the opposite sex. Indeed, if you’ve been in Romania for more than 15 minutes, you will probably have noticed that the fact that soare (sun) rhymes with mare (sea) is the greatest source of poetic inspiration since the dawn of time.

The worst form of local music is known as manele. Simple songs about simple subjects (the usual mix of love problems and lack of parai, dollars) to the beat of Turkish-sounding music, making use of traditional instruments combined with electronics. These are guaranteed floor-fillers in most discos, though anyone with any taste will leave immediately a manele hits the turntable.

Bucharest’s jazz and blues scene is bustling. Johnny Raducanu and A.G. Weinberger are big names locally. Catch them at Green Hours, or Laptaria lui Enache. The Green Hours club sells its own CDs.