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Tag: performances

Another edition of the Olympic Games end in Paris

A small torch carried on Sunday by the phenomenal French swimmer Leon Marchand – the only athlete to have won four gold medals at the Olympics in Paris – marked the end of the 33^rd edition of the Olympic Games.

Romania ended this edition of the prestigious competition with 9 medals, of which, three gold, four silver and two bronze. Romania’s gold medalists were swimmer David Popovici, in the 200 meters freestyle race, Andrei Cornea and Marian Enache in the men’s double race and the Romania’s women eight made up of Maria Magdalena Rusu, Roxana Anghel, Ancuta Bodnar, Maria Lehaci, Adriana Adam, Amalia Beres, Ioana Vrinceanu, Simona Radis and Victoria Stefania Petreanu. Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis walked away with silver from the women’s double scull event and so did Ioana Vrinceanu and Roxana Anghel in the women’s pair. Gianina van Groningen and Ionela Cozmiuc also became silver medalists in the light-weight women’s double scull and so did weightlifter Mihaela Cambei in the 49 kilogram category.

David Popovici with bronze in the 100 meter freestyle race and gymnast Ana Barbosu stepped onto the podium’s third step.

Romania had a better presence in Paris than in Tokyo 2021 and Rio 2016, where its athletes got only four medals. And they fared better than in London Olympics, from where they walked away with only 7 medals.

However, the number of medals won in Paris is significantly lower when compared to Sidney 2000, when our athletes reaped no less than 26 medals.

Romania went 23^rd out of the 206 participants in the medal ranking in Paris. The United States topped the table with 40 gold, 44 silver and 42 bronze medals, followed by China with 40 gold, 27 silver and 24 bronze. Japan went third with 20 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze.

The host country, France, ranked fifth with 16 gold medals, 26 silver and 22 bronze.

The closing ceremony was attended by 80 thousand people who came to celebrate sports and their winners. Bearing the medals they won, athletes were allowed to enter the stadium without being imposed any alphabetical order as two weeks ago in the opening ceremony.

An original grandiose show of light and colour with artists wearing SF costumes was staged during the closing ceremony, which also included fireworks.

Roughly 300 dancers, actors and musicians put up a show in which extraterrestrials coming from outer space were restoring the Olympic Games and rebuilding the Olympic Circles.

During the aforementioned ceremony, the Olympic Flag was handed over to the next host country, the USA, and a 15-minute Hollywood performance came to complete the show.

Upon a spectacular jump over the stadium, the US film star Tom Cruise has been assigned another ‘mission impossible’, namely to carry the Olympic flag to Los Angeles.

(bill)

12 August 2024
June 27, 2024

FITS The International Theatre Festival in Sibiu, central Romania, continues today with over 80 events scheduled. The famous US actor John Malkovich will step onto the stage with a show entitled ‘In the Solitude of Cotton Fields’. ‘Uncle Vanya’ by Anton Chekhov is another performance scheduled, and will be put on stage by actors from the National Theatre Satiricus Ion Luca Caragiale from the Republic of Moldova. The Bucharest-based ‘Stela Popescu’ Theatre will be presenting a concert-show directed by Razvan Mazilu and the Austrian Theatre brings in a performance entitled “The Carpathians like Stains on My Skin”. Street performances are expected to animate the medieval squares and pedestrian areas in the city of Sibiu. The programme is completed by gospel concerts and Portuguese Fado performances, while a Spanish troupe is expected to give a concert in Sibiu’s Big Square.

FOOTBALL Romania’s national football side qualified for the round of 16 of the European Football Championship after a one-all draw against Slovakia in Frankfurt on Wednesday night. Razvan Marin scored the equalizer from a penalty shot and his performance pushed the side coached by Edward Iordanescu on top of the group. Our footballers will be up against the Netherlands on the famous Allianz Arena in Munich. Thousands of fans took to the streets of Romania to express their joy for the performance.

NATO The Dutch Premier Mark Rutte is officially the future NATO Secretary General. The 57 year-old politician has benefitted from support from all 32 representatives of the North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s main decision-making body and his mandate is to kick off on October 1^st. Rutte will replace the Norwegian chief Jens Stoltenberg and is known for his critical position against Russia and for supporting Ukraine in terms of its NATO and EU accession. The Netherlands is supporting Ukraine also militarily, including with F-16 jet fighters, which have been given the permission to strike Russian targets. Besides the war in Ukraine and the tense international political background, Rutte will have the task of negotiating with a possible US administration led by Donald Trump, if the latter wins the upcoming election where he runs against the incumbent president Joe Biden.

SUMMIT EU leaders are convening today in Brussels in the company of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for talks on providing weapons to Ukraine and the latest developments in the war with Russia. This has been the second summit after the European Parliament elections early this month and the 27 heads of state and government will continue talks on distributing positions in the main European institutions. Ursula von der Leyen, from the European People’s Party, is favourite for the position of the head of the European Commission, while the former Portuguese premier Antonio Costa, from the Socialists, stands chances to head the European Council. The position of the president of the European Parliament will be shared by the EPP and the Socialists with the first two years and a half held by incumbent president Roberta Metsola from the EPP. The three main political groups are convening separately to decide their position on the final negotiation in the Council. Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis will be attending the EPP meeting while the country’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu the Socialists. Also high on the agenda there is the military aid for Ukraine, which has been blocked by Hungary, which is also blocking the distribution by Kyiv of the profits from the frozen Russian assets. The summit also marks the end of the Belgian EU presidency, which will be taken over by Budapest for the next six months.

VISIT The head of the Romanian diplomacy Luminita Odobescu on Wednesday held talks In Warsaw with her Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski on the sidelines of the trilateral meeting Romania-Poland-Turkey. Minister Odobescu has hailed the dynamic and complex character of the Romanian-Polish dialogue, assumed in the Strategic Bilateral Partnership and reflected in a busy agenda of political-diplomatic contacts and an excellent cooperation in the fields of security and economy as well as in sectoral areas. She also expressed the interest for the ongoing capitalization of the investment opportunities offered by the two states as well as in deepening cooperation in fields of mutual interest such as infrastructure, energy, agriculture and education. The Romanian minister has also hailed the effective cooperation at the EU and NATO levels as well as in regional formats. Regarding Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, the Romanian minister reiterated the need for the ongoing multidimensional support, including the military one as well as the importance of reconstructing the country’s infrastructure heavily affected by the war.

(bill)

27 June 2024
La meilleure année de l’histoire de la Bourse des valeurs de Roumanie.

L’année dernière, la Bourse de Bucarest a réalisé sa meilleure
performance sur le marché financier autochtone. Elle a affiché un record de
transactions, notamment après que Hidroelectrica, le plus gros producteur d’électricité
de Roumanie a mis en bourse la plus grande opération sur les marchés européens,
d’un total de deux milliards d’euros. Le 8 décembre 2023, l’indice BET de
référence de la bourse de Bucarest a franchi pour la première fois dans son histoire
le seuil de 15000 points, en clôturant l’année avec un bond de 32% par rapport
à l’année précédente. La valeur total des transactions a dépassé les 38
milliards de lei, soit 7,6 milliards d’euros, ce qui se traduit par une
croissance significative de 58% par rapport à 2022.

Les presque deux millions
de transactions déroulées dans le courant de 2023 ont marqué un record sans
précédent des seize dernières années. Voilà pourquoi, le président de la Bourse
des valeurs, Radu Hanga, a affirmé que l’année dernière a été la meilleure jamais
enregistrée sur le marché des capitaux de Roumanie. Toutes ces performances
reconfirment le fait que les projets se déroulent dans la bonne voie et que le
marché autochtone de capital remplit à succès son rôle de plateforme de
financement de l’économie roumaine. Nous avons une excellente collaboration
avec les autorités publiques, avec le Gouvernement, le Parlement, l’Autorité
pour la surveillance financière et la Banque centrale, ce qui est essentiel
pour le développement du marché financier et de l’économie roumaine dans son
ensemble a ajouté Radu Hanga.

A son tour, le directeur général de la Bourse de
Bucarest, Adrian Tanase, a souligné qu’en 2023, l’institution a battu tous les
records en liquidités enregistrés dans le courant de l’année d’avant, dans le
contexte où le nombre d’investisseurs a atteint un chiffre historique et les
indices financiers ont eu un rendement substantiel. L’amélioration
significative du ratio de la liquidité bancaire reflète l’intérêt et la confiance
des investisseurs dans le marché roumain de capitaux, a-t-il expliqué. Cet
aspect renforce non seulement notre rôle régional, mais aussi la capacité de la
Bourse de Bucarest d’attirer de nouveaux investisseurs ce qui contribue au
développement continuel du marché financier de Roumanie, a expliqué Adrian
Tanase.

A travers onze émissions d’obligations corporatives, les émetteurs ont
attiré 1,6 milliards d’euros ce qui prouve l’appétit pour le financement. Le
ministère des Finances a été lui aussi très actif sur le marché, en attirant
1,9 milliards de lei par l’intermédiaire des titres d’Etat Fidelis. Si 2022 a
provoqué des pertes aux participants au système privé de la retraite, le pic
enregistré par la suite, par la Bourse
et l’évolution des taux d’intérêt a débouché sur un rendement excellent de
ceux-ci. Le profit de 19 milliards de lei, soit 3,8 milliards d’euros, associé
aux pilliers II et III du système privé de la retraite est presque égal au
profit total obtenu ces quinze dernières années. Par ailleurs, le nombre d’investisseurs s’est
monté en automne dernier à 168.000, soit un record historique. Disons aussi,
que ces quatre dernières années, le nombre d’investisseurs en Bourse de Roumanie
s’est triplé.

1 February 2024
“Interior/Exterior” – a contemporary dance show

Oana Rasuceanu collaborated on the
show with the film director Iulia Rugină. The show proposes an introspective
look into the lives of four female characters and into the world of their
emotions and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The show is
based on documented interviews conducted by the two artists during the lockdown
period and proposes to the spectators a reinterpretation and an analysis of
those emotions, of our experiences, of everybody’s emotions actually. We spoke
with the director about the show’s artistic concept, about her vision
translated into the show. Here is Oana Răsuceanu:

Oana Rasuceanu: ‘Interior/Exterior’ is a show
that talks about the existence, let’s say slightly shaken, of four female
characters, who end up being trapped in something that we were all trapped in
the period March to May 2020. And I am referring to the state of emergency, the
lockdown, the pandemic, the onset of the pandemic in Romania. My thoughts about
this show were generated by several states, bizarre states, ambiguous states,
anxiety, questions about what it was like for us, all of us, at that time. And
I also thought of how we can actually get back to that period, after these
years that have passed, years which did not erase, though, the respective
experience, but on the contrary. I have had this feeling that what these years
that have passed did to us was to put a magnifying glass on certain types of
scars, which, I think, everyone feels. I also think that some of us decided to
let these scars be visible, becoming aware of them eventually, while others simply
decided that it is better to hide these scars in a drawer and lock them there
for good. The show kicked off from here to further convey this message and
we eventually made it to a point where we actually realized that there is video
that we have. And I am using the plural here, as I speak about me and Iulia
Rugina. During the pandemic lockdown in May last year, we decided to do a
series of interviews via the Zoom platform, as nobody was allowed to leave
their places. So we had a series of talks with various people in our life, some
of them close to us because we felt like documenting that unique moment, which
none of us had experienced before. And that unrefined material proved to be
extremely valuable and I believe its value is going to increase from one year
to another. We used only parts of these talks and some of the interviews we got
from women. We held talks with males and females with ages ranging from 10 to
70 years and from all these we have chosen four females who were to become
active characters in this show intertwined with the live performances of the
four protagonists.

The screenwriter, choreographer and
director of the show has also talked to us about the four performers, their
work and transcending emotions. Here is Oana Răsuceanu at the microphone again:

Oana Rasuceanu: The four performers are Mariana
Gavriciuc, Anastasia Preotu, Teodora Velescu and Eva Danciu and I started
working with them on four scripts I have written for the 4 live female
performances. I felt the need of a common denominator when I started building the
moving performance of these four bodies, beginning with biographic data, states,
thoughts, social status etc identified for each of the four. I felt that the movement and the construction
of the movement phrases should combine the emotional and social trajectory of
those characters until the beginning of the state of emergency. Then it was the
process of their transformation over the two months and the moment it ends and
when they got the false feeling they could simply resume life from that moment on
as if nothing had happened. It was something of extreme falsity and we were quite
captive in that moment of falsehood, which we didn’t realize at first but were
able to see very clearly after a couple of months or years. Since then, I myself
have been experiencing some sort of an anxiety, the need to be always on guard.
Somehow to me, the entire period of the pandemic seems to be a big question
mark hanging over our tomorrow. And I believe this feeling has been pervasive
throughout the entire show because there is this uncertainty of tomorrow, you
know, the feeling that you are in complete darkness. I tried to make this
darkness visible, so to say, but certainly many of us and the four performers
at that, have eventually accepted the situation and there is nothing we can do,
so we must move on. This is the thing I have done, the thing they do, and many
of us have done, a step ‘forward’, no matter where this forward will take us.

(LS & bill)

7 January 2023
November 6, 2022 UPDATE

GAS
According to data released by the national company Transgaz, on Monday morning
Romania will rely on 3 billion cubic meters of stored gas, which is tantamount
to a storage degree of 97.7% of its total capacity. Romania has exceeded the
quantity of stored gas in the same period last year by 701 million cubic meters.
The minimum threshold of 80% approved for Romania in the new European
Commission regulation was attained on September 17.

REFUGEES According to the Romanian border police, roughly 187 thousand
people crossed Romania’s borders either to enter or to leave the country on
Saturday. They were Romanian and foreign citizens who used over 50,500 vehicles.
Out of them 9,158 were Ukrainian nationals, 16.81% more than the previous day.
According to a press release, since February 10th, two weeks before
the Russian invasion, 2.7 million Ukrainian citizens have entered Romania. Most
of them transited the country for other destinations and over 86,500 decided to
stay in Romania.

SUPPORT Authorities in Bucharest are presently
considering a series of alternatives to ease the access of population to firewood, after
the initial cap of 80 Euros per cubic meter has led to a market crisis. One of
the options could be the idea of granting vouchers to the needy. According to
the country’s Environment Minister Tanczos Barna, the ordinance on capping
firewood prices will be amended next week so that it may truly protect those
who use firewood for heating in winter. He explains that the law, formerly
endorsed by the Senate, will be amended in the Chamber of Deputies so that
firewood may become available on the market again. A couple of days ago, the
country’s Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca admitted the initial capping measures
had failed to yield the desired result. The opposition USR has drawn attention
to the fact that the law has already caused irregularities on the firewood
market.

THEATRE The National Theatre Festival (NTF)
continues in Romania until November 13. Theatre performances during this event
will have in-person attendance, after two years of pandemic with online
performances. The NTF includes over 60 theatre shows that have been mounted by
state and independent theatre troupes from Romania and abroad. The festival,
which this year unfolds under a suggestive motto, ‘Fragile borders. Fluid
histories’ also boasts an on-air section including a series of exquisite radio
shows.

ENERGY Romania is presently covering over 90% of
the neighboring Republic of Moldova’s need for electricity, Romanian Foreign
Minister Bogdan Aurescu has told a TV channel. According to him, the situation has
become severe in the neighboring country, which relies 100% on foreign supplies
of gas and electricity. Aurescu has also mentioned Romania’s support for the
neighboring country consisting in firewood and oil fuel. Romania has also called on the international community to give
grants to the Republic of Moldova so that the country may buy energy on the
free market. After the Russian invasion, Ukraine became unable to export energy
to the Republic of Moldova. At the same time, Russian giant Gazprom announced
in October its intention to diminish gas supplies to the Republic of Moldova due to
the alleged disputes over the payment and the refusal of the Ukrainian pipeline
operator to provide an all-out service for the transport of the Russian gas.
According to Moldovan president Maia Sandu her country is presently seeing the
severest energy crisis in its history.

(bill)

6 November 2022
Le vélo est dans le vent en Roumanie aussi …

Les passionnés de deux roues non polluants se sont donné rendez-vous lespace dun week-end ensoleillé à Bucarest, pour la plus grande exposition du genre du pays : le Salon du vélo, déjà à sa 6ème édition, car la première a été organisée en 2015. Il a réuni les grands producteurs nationaux, les importateurs et les magasins spécialisés. Et voilà, le Salon du vélo est enfin de retour en 2022, après deux années de pause en raison de la pandémie. Ligia l’a visité et s’est entretenue avec son organisateur, Valentin Ionescu, et avec le représentant de la marque roumaine de vélos Pegas, Adrian Georgescu.

RadioRomaniaInternational · LE SALON DU VELO DE BUCAREST 13/04/2022

20 July 2022
Festivals postponed

Major festivals, which had become a tradition in Romania and used to be scheduled every summer, were officially cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic and of relevant restrictions.

Untold was due to take place between July 31 and August 2 in Cluj-Napoca (north-west), while Neversea was scheduled for early July in Constanţa, on the Black Sea coast.

According to organisers, the decision was made in the context of the uncertainties looming over the events industry and of the strict conditions under which people are allowed to meet. The Culture Ministry presenting Parliament with a bill banning events with more than 1,000 people in attendance until August 31, 2020, did not help either.

It is with broken hearts, but also with the belief that this is the best decision for the health and safety of all Romanians, that we have decided to postpone this years Untold and Neversea for 2021, the organisers of the 2 festivals announced.

Summer Well, held every summer for the past few years near Bucharest, was also rescheduled for next year, and so was Electric Castle, another festival due in Cluj in mid-July. This was a very difficult decision and we are aware of the disappointment and sadness it brings not only to our fans, but also to all those who make this festival possible every year, said the organisers. Also in Cluj, another landmark event, Jazz in the Park, was cancelled over the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those who have purchased tickets for this years festivals may choose to use them for the forthcoming editions, or to get a refund, where possible.

Starting on June 1, Romanian authorities allow concerts and other performances held outdoors, with a maximum of 500 people in attendance, seated 2m from each other and wearing protective face masks throughout the shows.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

3 June 2020
Bucharest National Opera House invites music fans to online performances

Over the past few years, we have enjoyed many premieres, with guests from major international opera houses, with internationally acclaimed directors and impressive stage sets. And because the Bucharest National Opera House, the countrys biggest lyrical music establishment, could not abandon its public, the institution decided to post its performances online. We talked with Stefan Ignat, the director general of the Bucharest National Opera House:

Stefan Ignat: “We are not sure how long this crisis will last, but for the forthcoming period we have recordings of the performances staged over the past 2 years. I will only mention a few of them—Don Carlos, Tosca, The Troubadour, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Carmina Burana, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nut-Cracker. We have very good recordings of Balliadera, Ludwig Minkus ballet. And we would love for the general public to see them online. This is a difficult period and opera should remain visible. We are planning to post two performances a week, on Mondays and Thursdays at 18.30. We hope the quality of the posts will be appropriate, and if not, we apologize in advance.

And because the National Opera House means to stay loyal to its public while at the same time winning over new fans, the management is working on a second plan as well, as the director general Stefan Ignat tells us:

Stefan Ignat: “Over the next period we intend to record brief performances with soloists and orchestra members, arias from their repertoires if possible. We expect the audience to love this, and we are happy to respond to their suggestions. And we also seek to provide the best-quality experiences that we can.

Every week, the Bucharest National Opera House will post online 2 of its most popular performances. We invited Stefan Ignat to give us a few details about the platform on which we can access these performances:

Stefan Ignat: “Each performance will be available on the institutions Facebook account. We figured this is a good time for people to learn more about the Bucharest Opera House and about other activities that we carry out. In the coming 2 months, we will probably be able to post all the 13-14 premieres that we have recorded recently.

The online season started with Giuseppe Verdis Don Carlos. The performance was recorded on February 18, 2018. Stefan Ignat, the director general of the National Opera House in Bucharest, also sent people a personal message:

Stefan Ignat: “All I want is for people to stay at home, to keep safe from this invisible threat, to stay at home and to listen to us on the online platform.

In recent years, the National Opera House in Bucharest has delighted us with many premieres. The 2018-2019 season, for instance, concluded with a premiere of “The Troubadour by Giuseppe Verdi, staged by the Italian director Mario de Carlo. Before the premiere, we asked the director to give us a few details about the novelties in his new work, for which he also designed the stage sets, costumes and lights:

Mario de Carlo: “Its a surprise, so I wouldnt want to ruin it, but I will give you a clue: the Romanian public, the opera lovers in Bucharest, are familiar with my approach. I have a lot of respect for what the composer and librettist have done. As a director, I try to give the common opera-goers what they like. In ‘The Troubadour, I look at not only the superficial contrast, between 2 individuals or 2 souls, but also at a much deeper conflict. Its like a battlefield where 2 world views, 2 ways of living clash. On the one hand, there is Count di Lunas bleak, strict world with rigid rules, and on the other hand there is Manricos world, a light, free world that cannot accept any rules.

So stay at home, but dont forget to check out the opera shows available on the official Facebook page of the National Opera House in Bucharest, and at www.operanb.ro/operaonline, available to the public on Mondays and Thursdays at 6.30 p.m.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

7 April 2020
Sports Anniversaries in 2017

The year 2017 is a celebration year for a number of Romanian top-flight athletes as well as for a series of memorable, top-level performances in various sports.

We begin with former Olympic champion Mihaela Penes, who turns 70 in July. Penes was a gold medallist in 1964 in Tokyo and a silver medallist at the Olympic Games in Ciudad De Mexico in 1968, in the javelin throw event. Even after Mihaela Penes retired from competitions, she remained involved in the world of sports, working for the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee. Between 2001 and 2005 Mihaela Penes headed the Romanian Olympic Academy.

Also in July 2017, we celebrate 65 years since the first Olympic gold medal was awarded to a Romanian athlete. In the 1952 edition of the Olympic Games, held in Helsinki, sporting shooter Iosif Sarbu won the gold in the mens 50-meter rifle prone.

Forty-five years ago, in the Olympic Games in Munich, Romania won three gold medals. The winners were Ivan Patzaichin in the 1,000m simple canoe event, and Greco-Roman wrestlers Gheorghe Berceanu, in the 48-kilogram category and Nicolae Martinescu in the 100-kilogram category.

Thirty years ago, on February 24, 1987, Romanian football saw one of its greatest performances in history. In Monte Carlo, Steaua Bucharest won the UEFA Super Cup, defeating Dinamo Kiev, 1-nil.

In 2017 we also celebrate 25 years since the Olympic Games in Barcelona, when the Romanian delegation walked home with four gold medals, two of which were won by gymnast Lavinia Milosovici, in the vault and floor events. Rower Elisabeta Lipa won gold in the simple canoe event. Another gold medal went to the coxed four crew, made up of Dimitrie Popescu, Dumitru Răducanu, Iulică Ruican, Nicolae Ţaga and Viorel Talapan.

(translated by: Eugen Nasta)

1 February 2017