The National Radio Orchestra of Romania conducted by Cristian Mandeal

George Enescu – Orchestral Suite No 1 in C major, op. 9
George Enescu/Cornel Ţăranu – Caprice Roumain

Soloist: Gabriel Croitoru (violin)

Ludwig van Beethoven – Triple Concerto in C major, op. 56

Soloists: Anda Petrovici (violin), Marin Cazacu (cello), Nicolae Licareţ (piano)

George Enescu – Romanian Rhapsody No 1 in A major, op. 11

Enescu’s complete works can be said to epitomise a country whose culture is currently influenced by popular artistic traditions and avant-garde forms of expression. People often overlook the fact that the musician, who was catapulted to fame as a violin virtuoso as a very young child and admired throughout his life in North America and Europe, left behind a rich compositional oeuvre that fuses the traditional and the modern. His “Romanian Rhapsodies” are widely known, in contrast to his early chamber music works, his orchestral suites, in which he explored a range of styles, his late romantic “Symphony Concertante” and his opera “Oedipe”. Over the years, Mandeal has performed this opera several times outside Romania to considerable acclaim from audiences and critics alike.

Enescu’s complete works can be said to epitomise a country whose culture is currently influenced by popular artistic traditions and avant-garde forms of expression. Enescu is joined by Beethoven on the evening’s programme at the Alte Oper: Beethoven’s works epitomise universality like few others, which is why when the Council of Europe was choosing the European anthem, it selected the instrumental version of the final chorus of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – “Joy, beautiful spark of the gods”. At the grand opening concert, however, the orchestra will perform the Triple Concerto in C major, op. 56, which recalls the period when Romania belonged to the Habsburg Empire: Beethoven wrote the work in 1804 for his piano pupil, Archduke Rudolf of Austria. The solo instruments are piano, violin and cello.

Organised in cooperation with Alte Oper Frankfurt.

The concert will be recorded by Hessicher Rundfunk and Societatea Română de Radiodifuziune, Romania’s national radio broadcasting corporation.

Organ and pan pipe concert

Nicolae Licareţ and Gheorghe Zamfir play works by Enescu, Handel, Schubert, Liszt and Zamfir.

With their soft tones, which lend a distinctive quality to both classical and pop music, the pan pipes are an instrument that has been popularised by Gheorghe Zamfir as a soloist, in duos, with small ensembles and with large orchestras. Since recording his first record in 1966, Zamfir has enjoyed great success. He has an extremely wide repertoire, is not afraid to push boundaries and is proficient in several genres. As a film musician, he has been responsible for the unique mood in a number of films and his performances with James Last are legendary. For many years now, Zamfir has also worked with pianist and organist Nicolae Licareţ, who debuted at a Handel festival in 1959 and has since made the world’s most renowned stages his home.

As a duo, Zamfir and Licareţ have recorded a number of pieces by great composers: the organ and pan pipes – an unusual combination of instruments – transform even well-known pieces into new and constantly surprising auditory experiences. The two musicians are currently on tour with a classical programme, in which they elevate compositions by Enescu and Handel, among others, to a quasi-heavenly sphere. In this regard, the pan pipes are an instrument that remains an important part of Romania’s pastoral traditions, thereby retaining strong links with the countryside, its inhabitants and its customs.

Young talents

Pianist Matei B. Mihăescu plays his own compositions, as well as works by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Beethoven

He started to play the piano at the age of five and shot to fame at the age of ten when he gave a concert in the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest. If anyone can be called a “child prodigy”, it is Matei Bucur Mihăescu. Born on 30 January 1995, this young man not only demonstrates extraordinary talent as a pianist, but also, at the age of just 14, has already composed more than 20 pieces for piano, orchestra, choir and chamber ensembles.

Mihaescu’s compositions have already been performed by renowned musicians and two recordings of him playing his own piano pieces have already been released. In 2008 he set up his own chamber orchestra under the name “Cammerata”, in which the double “M” in the middle stands for “Matei Mihăescu”. The Romanians refer to the gifted pianist as “our Mozart”, but also often compare him to George Enescu: being both a great interpreter and an influential composer is really not as common as one might think.

Mihăescu is a pupil at the “George Enescu” Music High School in Bucharest and has already performed on many of the world’s great stages. The repertoire of the multiple award-winning pianist covers 400 years of musical history. In Frankfurt, he will present works by Beethoven and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, as well as three of his own compositions.

Jazz

Harry Tavitian and Csaba Cserey “The Art of the Dialogue”

Harry Tavitian is the most famous pianist on the Romanian jazz scene. He has been influenced by Thelonious Monk, who he dubs his greatest inspiration, as well as by Mal Waldron and Cecil Taylor. His music also draws on folkloric stimuli from the Balkans and Armenia.

Tavitian was born in 1952 to Armenian parents in Constanţa. He describes his first encounter with the blues in 1970 as a shock, because until that point he had played only classical music. It was as a blues player, however, that he became famous, only later turning his hand to jazz. During the 1980s he released two records in London, before doing so in Romania, too, where initially his records were nowhere to be found because they were sold only abroad.

The type of music that Tavitian currently plays with his various ensembles and soloists is sometimes referred to as “ethno jazz”, but it still also contains elements of free jazz and blues. As part of the Cultural Days of the ECB – Romania 2009, Tavitian will be on stage with Hungarian percussionist Csaba Cserey, who was born in 1958 in Transylvania and feels drawn to oriental music traditions. In its compositions, the duo manipulates Romanian, Hungarian and Armenian folklore and moulds it into the language of modern jazz.

Concert

The Romanian Piano Trio plays works by Haydn, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Enescu and Piazzolla

There is a certain pop star quality to the Romanian Piano Trio, who offer fresh, exciting interpretations and combine original material with old classics. The enthusiasm with which the musicians play is intoxicating and their interpretation of the classics is gripping. Pianist Horia Mihail, violinist Alexandru Tomescu and cellist Răzvan Suma have earned a reputation outside Romania, but have decided to pursue their careers in their own country and thus share the experience that they have gained elsewhere with audiences at home.

Their aim is not only to give flawless performances of classical works, but also to break down barriers. Since they are extremely keen to explain the genesis of composition and interpretation to others, they offer a broad pedagogical programme in Romania.

Horia Mihail returned to Romania, after three years of teaching in Boston, to take up the position of permanent soloist with the Brasov Philharmonic. Alexandru Tomescu is currently a permanent soloist with the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, but has also worked in Switzerland and the United States, and Răzvan Suma is in demand as a concert soloist all over the world.

Young talents

Pianist Alexandra Silocea plays pieces by Schumann, Enescu, Jora and Prokofiev

Alexandra Silocea, born in 1984, is one of the most talented young pianists in Romania. She is currently in the process of establishing herself as an international artist, despite only having had her first piano lesson at the age of eight at the Music School of Constanţa. Two years later, she won several piano competitions.

In 1995 Silocea moved to Bucharest to join the “George Enescu” Music High School, and at the age of 14 she was already playing with the most renowned orchestras in Romania. In 2000 she moved to Vienna to pursue her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts. However, she continued her studies at the Music High School in Bucharest by correspondence and graduated in 2003.

In Vienna, Silocea was taught by Christoph Berner, Martin Hughes and Oleg Maisenberg, and received her undergraduate degree in 2006. At the moment she is following a Masters course under the supervision of Johannes Marian. In April 2008 she successfully debuted in the Mozart Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus, and in September of the same year she passed the entrance examination for the National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance and went on to join the class of Theodor Paraschivescu and Laurent Cabasso.

Silocea has already won several awards and performed at a number of festivals, as well as on Romanian radio. In 2009 she plans to record her first CD. Her repertoire is broad, and it almost goes without saying that it has a strong focus on George Enescu.

Folklore

Grigore Leşe
“Roots”

Music is more than just entertainment. In all cultures, it accompanies transitions in people’s lives and is a part of religious ceremonies. It is this basic significance of singing and the use of instruments that Grigore Leşe captures in his show “Roots”. He transports the audience to a Romanian village, involving them in rituals linked to birth, initiation and weddings. He alludes to old myths that say that music is of divine origin and that people are at one with the heavenly powers when they sing and play music.

Besides music that introduces the individual chapters of human life – whether with joy or with the lamenting of loss – Leşe is particularly devoted to old pastoral melodies; both elements, he says, are key to Romanian folk music. However, the show, which features traditional Romanian dress and dance interludes, also brings to life the tradition of the melancholic song, which typifies the man who lives in solitude in order to find new strength through music.

It familiarises the audience with all kinds of archaic instrument used, for example, by the shepherding community. Furthermore, it reveals that folklore is much more than a token means of entertaining tourists. In fact, “Roots” is a visual and auditory experience which demonstrates that popular art is about identity, finding one’s own place in the world and the self-assurance of the individual in a globalised culture.

Dance performance

Gigi Căciuleanu
“OuiBaDa”

For his project “OuiBaDa”, Gigi Căciuleanu wanted a team that is as energetic and collegial as a football team, i.e. people with different horizons, who complement each other and contribute to a synthesis of the sort that he strives to achieve in his shows. In “OuiBaDa”, the internationally renowned choreographer and ballet director is searching for his roots, the national characteristics of dance art and a type of ballet that sets itself apart from what is termed “modern dance” and “dance theatre” in the western world.

In other words, the movement artist, who has worked primarily in France since the 1970s, directing ballet companies in several cities, is reassessing his cultural position. Influenced by the western European dance scene, he questions the conventions developed long ago by the avant-garde ballet in Paris and Wuppertal in an attempt to carve out his own unique style. In so doing, he traces the origins of his thoughts through movement in order to hunt down his Romanian identity.

Căciuleanu refers to his style of ballet as “choreographic theatre”, which he says consists of four elements: a dynamic, a psychological, a poetic and a philosophical level, i.e. movement in space, the relationships between the people involved, metaphors for human life and lastly the thought processes required in order to combine them all in a logical way.

Grand closing event

“Don Quixote – Made in Romania” with and by Dan Puric

The novel “El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha”, by the Spanish poet Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), is one of the founding works of European literature. Don Quixote is the first simultaneous hero and anti-hero in European prose. He stands not only for the eternal conflict between fantasy and reality, the ability to transcend reality through poetry and the power of the imagination in a world obsessed with purpose and utility, but also for the failure ingrained in our existence, the futility of all efforts and the comical aspects that are also inherent in human tragedy.

Dan Puric, a director, actor and author who is best known outside Romania as a mime artist, has used the story of the melancholic knight as the basis for a play that operates on a level beyond words. In this way, he brings to the fore the universal nature of this literary character, who, in this rendition, nevertheless also has obvious Romanian traits. In “Don Quixote – Made in Romania”, Puric, who was born in Bucharest in 1959, combines, among other things, tap dancing and folklore with silent film aesthetics and oriental combat techniques to create a play aiming to transcend national frontiers, language barriers and ideological differences without having to forego cultural characteristics.

On the stage of the Oper Frankfurt, Puric and his team of over 20 performers present the attack on the windmills and other episodes from the lives of Don Quixote (played by Puric himself), his buffoonish squire Sancho Panza (Constantin Dinulescu) and his beloved Dulcinea (Ileana Olteanu), a peasant girl whom he believes to be a young noblewoman. This production contains elements of commedia dell’arte and slapstick, as well as Broadway-esque chorus scenes.

Like Unamuno, whom, besides Dostoevsky, he cites as the main authority on the significance of Don Quixote, Puric is convinced that the Spanish nobleman with a penchant for eras gone by is the holder of the truth, while those who ridicule him and deem him to be insane are actually blind. According to Puric, the deification of day-to-day reality has led to people drowning in a sea of despair: “Don Quixote wakes humanity from its dreamless sleep, because it is not he, but the world that has strayed from the path of truth”.

Transferral of patronage: Cultural Days of the European Central Bank – the Netherlands 2010
After the event, there will be a ceremony to mark the transferral of patronage in anticipation of the 2010 Cultural Days, which will focus on the Netherlands.

Reading

Mircea Cărtărescu: “Die Wissenden”

Presentation and reading of the German text by Gerhardt Csejka
Mircea Cărtărescu, who was born in 1956 in Bucharest, is an advocate of postmodernism not only in his work as a novelist, lyricist and literary critic, but also in his capacity as an academic tutor: the possibilities in terms of style, form or quotation are limitless – literature becomes a reflection of the confusing complexity of relationships, while the reality being described seems to be a playground for uncontrollable forces.

Thus far, Cărtărescu has published 19 books and is one of the linchpins of Romanian literary activity: he has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, works as a lecturer and guest speaker, and is an active member of various authors’ associations. Gerhardt Csejka’s faithful German translation of Cărtărescu’s novel “Die Wissenden”, which is the first part of a trilogy that was completed two years ago, was published in 2007. This tale of childhood and family life is set in Bucharest during the 1960s and 1970s, but escalates into an unbridled global narrative that takes in brain research, fantasy, esotericism and episodes of horror.

The Bucharest of prefab high-rises, where one man is promoted to officer in the Securitate, and another – the father of the first-person narrator – does not manage to pursue a career, turns into a place of surreal events. The boundaries between reality and fiction dissolve, but the contours of the individual characters remain unchanged. The novel is therefore also a kind of self-portrait and a biographical account of the author’s parents, in particular his mother.

Reading

Gabriela Adameşteanu: “Der immergleiche Weg eines jeden Tages”

Presentation: Dr Stefana Sabin
Reading of the German text: Birgitta Assheuer
Gabriela Adameşteanu is an intellectual who was born in 1942 Under the Ceauşescu regime, she campaigned against the living conditions in communist Romania; after the coup, she became a kind of moral authority; she has been editor of a major culture magazine and has shadowed Romania’s journey towards democracy with her texts. Having spent 18 years as an editor at several publishing houses, Gabriela Adameşteanu is not only one of Romania’s most famous authors, but also a public figure who has championed the regeneration of Romania after the damage wrought by the dictatorship.

She has written relatively few literary works, especially as she turned her focus to journalism post-1990, but they have nevertheless made a significant impact in Romania’s recent literary history. The author writes in the spirit of realism, with some critics even saying that she exemplifies “hyperrealism”: she has such an accurate view of people and things that she is able to describe the contexts in which they exist and live with more clarity than the subjects themselves have in their everyday lives.

In 1975 she published her first novel “Der immergleiche Weg eines jeden Tages”. It was reprinted in 2008 and will be released in French in 2009 by Gallimard. This book tells the story of a young woman, who, while growing up, becomes disillusioned with herself, her own physical existence and the society around her. The novel has won several prizes. Gabriela Adameşteanu, who has also published volumes of short stories and essays, is currently working on her fourth novel.

Film

“The Way I Spent the End of the World”
OV, DE and FR subtitles, directed by Cătălin Mitulescu, 2006

The first feature-length film directed by Cătălin Mitulescu, “The Way I Spent the End of the World”, is about 17-year-old Eva and her brother Lalalilu, who is ten years younger. They live in Bucharest as the communist regime is coming to an end. When Eva and her boyfriend, Alex, inadvertently smash a bust of the dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, they are treated like criminals. Eva is expelled from college. At her new technical school, where she is sent to become more conformist, she meets Andrei. The two of them decide to flee over the Danube to Bulgaria in order to travel on to Italy.

Young Lalalilu holds Ceauşescu responsible for the difficulties his sister has got into, and hatches a plan to kill him. A performance by the school choir at an event attended by the dictator seems to him to be a suitable opportunity to do so. “Now we have democracy and the liberty to travel”, the director says about his film, “but we still carry the memory and heritage of that period inside of us. By seeing the events unfold through the eyes of 17-year-old Eva and her 7-year-old brother Lalalilu, ‘The Way I Spent the End of the World’ reflects that combination of sadness and happiness, reality and imagination that I associate with that time.”

Film

“4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”
OV, DE subtitles, directed by Cristian Mungiu, 2007

This film marks a departure for Romanian cinema: in 2007 “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”, directed by Cristian Mungiu, won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival and the prize for Best European Film at the Berlin Film Festival. The film attracted rave reviews – without exception – from international film critics, for whom the drama – about an illegal abortion in Bucharest in 1987 – set the benchmark for films examining the communist era. The director succeeds by generating an atmosphere and soberly unfolding a plot in which oppression and humiliation become tangible without the film being directly about political events.

It tells the story of two students: one of them is pregnant and, together with a friend, she meets a man who carries out abortions. In a gloomy hotel room, payment for the operation, which is subject to several years’ imprisonment in Ceauşescu’s Romania, is negotiated. “The worst thing”, says the director, “that the regime brought about in us was to influence our thinking to the extent that we do not consider the moral dimension when making decisions. That is a subliminal, damaging appropriation.” The cinema’s restaurant will be serving Romanian specialities.

Film

“California Dreamin’ (Endless)”
OV, EN subtitles, directed by Cristian Nemescu, 2007

Cristian Nemescu’s film “California Dreamin’ (Endless), which was completed in 2007 and has won numerous prizes, is set in 1999 during the war in Kosovo. In the small Romanian town of Doiaru, the stationmaster, who is also a member of a criminal gang, stops a NATO train with military equipment. There are no official papers for the transportation across the country, which is being monitored by American soldiers; just a verbal agreement with the Romanian government.

Suddenly, with the arrival of the Americans, anything seems possible in the town, which had hitherto gone unnoticed by world politics. The stationmaster’s daughter falls in love with one of the American soldiers, and the commanding officer sets the residents against the stationmaster. Anarchy reigns in the town even after the train has continued its journey.

Film

“The Rest is Silence”
OV, EN subtitles, directed by Nae Caranfil, 2007

The film “The Rest is Silence” by Nae Caranfil from 2007 tells a true story. 19-year-old Grig is the son of a famous Romanian actor from the first half of the 20th century, and, in the eyes of his father, makes the biggest mistake he can: too small for the stage, too shy with women and too extravagant in the way he behaves, Grig decides to make a film. He gets involved with the eccentric art patron Leon, who finances his paintings and becomes a surrogate father to him, but who eventually deceives him and becomes his enemy. And the question is whether Gaumont, the French firm that controls the Romanian film market, will allow him to make an independent production behind its back.

The cinema’s restaurant will be serving Romanian specialities.

Film and discussion

“The Great Communist Bank Robbery”, OV, EN subtitles, directed by Alexandru Solomon, 2004, and “Reconstituirea” (“Reconstitution”), OV, EN subtitles, directed by Virgil Calotescu, 1960

The case is unique. In 1959, a group of intellectuals, who were members of the secret police and had been expelled from the Communist Party, robbed the Romanian central bank. They were caught and had to play themselves in the documentary propaganda film “Reconstituirea” (Reconstitution) by Virgil Calotescu, which was released in cinemas in 1960, and depicts the crime and the police investigation.

The film ends with the sentencing and execution of the bank robbers. One month after their death, the film was released in cinemas and quickly became a sensation all over the country. In 2004, Alexandru Solomon told the unbelievable story in a documentary (“The Great Communist Bank Robbery”).

The director of the film, Alexandru Solomon, will be present.

Exhibition

Contemporary figurative painting from Romania
“Painting (Ro)Mania”

Romanian painting at the beginning of the 21st century does not take refuge in abstraction, but rather it follows a general tendency in eastern European art: it creates its own iconography, which has its source in everyday life as well as in popular culture and history. However, it interprets the motifs in a new way, clarifying them, defamiliarising them and presenting them in glowing, garish colours. Many aspects seem absurd, others poetic or strange, or even grotesque. Reality is often present only in quotes. This can go so far that the figures in the paintings seem like inhabitants of a fantastic realm. As in the case of Ştefan Câlţia, for example. Although he paints realistically, he represents neither reality nor myth. Instead, with his fantastic figures and scenes, he demonstrates the fact that painting is just about painting and nothing else. About a world beyond the perceptible. Nothing is made clear. Different perceptions are possible, but the mysterious remains. In this way, the painter is a kindred spirit of Ionesco and, by analogy with his theatre of the absurd, creates absurd art. In addition to works by Câlţia, who was born in 1942, the European Central Bank’s exhibition at the Eurotower also features works by the expressive painter Bogdan Vlăduţă and the photorealism of Roman Tolici, who are part of a younger generation and, in their own ways, transform the objective world into artistic compositions. But they all have one thing in common: with their concepts and formal experiments, they are part of the international art business, and are surely among the interesting discoveries to be made in that business.

Numismatics

Romanian money and securities – history and iconography

Banknotes and coins pass from hand to hand. Most people do not pay attention to what can be seen on them. They are only interested in the amounts. Collectors, of course, see things differently. For example, they acquire proof coins or other precious coinage with which you could pay for your shopping, but which are worth more than the nominal value to a collector. In addition to the added financial value, there is the non-material aspect. Banknotes and coins officially advertise their country, provide information on its identity, bear an image of the sovereign or the sovereign’s crest, depict the persons who are of particular significance to the national culture, and give an impression of the country’s outstanding architecture, particularly that of the capital city. Every child in the country is familiar with the symbols on banknotes and coins, but it may be that they would not be understood outside that country. An exhibition of the numismatic treasures of Romania will help to give interesting insights into the history of the country and how it sees itself. The exhibition at the European Central Bank’s Eurotower will comprise around 200 exhibits, with Romanian coins, banknotes and securities from the collection of Banca Naţională a României. The oldest coin originates from 1637 and the oldest banknote from 1877, while the securities were made in the first half of the 20th century. The Romanian national currency, the leu, probably takes its name from the Dutch “Leeuwendaalder” (lion dollars), which were in circulation in the Romanian principalities in the 17th century. The most recent change of currency was in 2005: a new Romanian leu is equivalent to 10,000 old Romanian lei.

Philately

“Romania, a European Treasure”

Stamps are miniature works of art that provide insights into other cultures and illustrate how states and nations view themselves. Romfilatelia is responsible for informing stamp collectors all over the world about Romanian stamps and promoting them internationally as colourful symbols of the country. The exhibition “Romania, a European Treasure” consists of a number of panels explaining the links between the stamps and the cultural phenomena to which they refer. Architecture, particularly that of the capital city, has an important part to play in the way the population views itself. Historical buildings such as the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Joseph, the Old National Theatre or the Romanian Athenaeum concert hall – for many the most beautiful building in Bucharest – are depicted in miniature on stamps that can either be stuck on letters and postcards in order to showcase the architectural splendour of this metropolis, which is constantly compared to Paris, or be slipped, hot off the press, into the albums of stamp collectors. It goes without saying that Romania’s most famous composer, George Enescu, and sculptor, Constantin Brâncuşi, also feature. Other motifs include viticulture and Romania’s accession to the European Union.

Talk

Radu Varia: “Constantin Brâncuşi as photographer”

Dr Radu Varia is one of the leading experts on Brâncuşi and is the author of a seminal book on the sculptor, which has been published in New York, Paris and Tokyo. He is the president and a founder member of the Constantin Brâncuşi International Foundation, which was set up in 1991.

Exhibition

Constantin Brâncuşi
The sculptor as a photographer

Exhibition in the “Museum der Weltkulturen”

Constantin Brâncuşi (1876-1957), one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century, was also a distinguished photographer: he used photography to document his work, but also saw it as a creative means that was attractive in its own right. The 30 photographs from the collection of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris that are being shown at the Museum der Weltkulturen in Frankfurt thus give insights into his work and the creation of his sculptures in the workshop, but they are also works of art of the highest aesthetic quality in their own right. Brâncuşi was fascinated by the possibilities offered by modern technology. How can time as such be depicted? How can dynamics, processes, developments and transitions be expressed? These questions were asked in the context of both avant-garde sculpture after 1900 and photography, which was still in its infancy. Brâncuşi was inspired by African and prehistoric art, although his ideas were rooted deep in European thinking. He identified movement, acceleration and speed, among other things, as principles of modernity. The smooth surfaces of his three-dimensional objects thus suggest a dissolution of the material and generate the impression of the peripheral, temporary and unreachable. “Birds” or “fish” that visitors to the exhibition encounter in the photographs have become pure forms: it is the act of swimming through the water or flying through the air that has taken shape here. Brâncuşi was interested in reducing the perceptible world to the essentials, in tracing complex organic shapes back to original forms, such as eggs. The “Endless pillar” in several versions shows that the topic of infinity can be handled through the sequencing of simple elements. In 1938 he completed a monumental version, consisting of 16 metal rhombi, in Târgu Jiu, western Romania, as part of a memorial to the victims of the First World War.

Talk

Friedrich Teja Bach: “Brâncuşis Photographie” (in German)

Prof. Dr Friedrich Teja Bach is a professor at the “Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Universität Wien” (Institute of Art History at the University of Vienna). He has held visiting professor positions at the Humboldt University of Berlin and at Harvard. In 1995, he was the academic director of the Brâncuşi retrospective in Paris and Philadelphia. He wrote one of the major academic publications on the artist: “Constantin Brâncuşi: Metamorphosen plastischer Form” (Constantin Brâncuşi: Metamorphoses in plastic form).

Fairytale show

Theaterclub Elmar
“Das Schloß hinterm Regenbogen” ((The castle over the rainbow)

Fairy tales are part of the universal legacy of mankind. They are told everywhere. Time and again, in different variations, they tell of lucky twists of fate, fairies that make wishes come true, little girls who become princesses, and princes who wake up young ladies with a kiss. The wonderful, the enchanting and the unbelievable affect not just children, but adults who still believe in wishes, too.

As part of the Cultural Days of the ECB, the Offenbach theatre club “Theaterclub Elmar” perform a show modelled on the Romanian fairy tale film “Das Schloß hinterm Regenbogen” (The castle over the rainbow), which was released in cinemas in 1970. The film, directed by Elisabeta Bostan and dubbed by DEFA, is regarded as a particularly touching example of a genre that was very popular in communist eastern Europe and, in parts, works with fantasy elements.

The film, which is based on a Petre Ispirescu fairy tale, is about a farmer’s son who sets off for the realm of eternal youth. He meets the god of time, who shows him the path of initiation; a girl gives him a magic flute as a present and he beats the prince of lies. Finally, he reaches the legendary “castle over the rainbow” and has to complete three tasks. At the end, however, the question is whether he should remain in the fairy tale realm of immortality or return home with his mortal sweetheart.

Suitable for children of 5 years and above.

Story time

Fairy tales with Ferdinand, the castle cat, the Frankfurter Bürgerstiftung preschool choir and two Romanian children’s stories

Ferdinand, the castle cat lives at the Holzhausenschlösschen in Frankfurt, where he feels happy and at home. However, he is, of course, interested in everything that is happening in the world and what people are talking about. In Romania, for example. He is therefore especially pleased to meet little Mircea. He comes from a story by Paul Goma called “From the beginning”. This is about words and their sound, what people are allowed to say and what is best left unsaid.

And Ferdinand comes into contact with Romania a second time. This occasion concerns a Romanian dog-head fish. A boy named Paul spots it early one morning after waking up. “When he opened his eyes, the cat had disappeared, but a huge fish with a dog’s head was swimming through the blue sea of the sky.” And so Paul’s story continues. Ferdinand found him in Dumitru Tsepeneag’s story “The Liar”. Incidentally, the author of the castle cat stories is Clemens Greve, the director of the Frankfurter Bürgerstiftung and head of programmes for the Holzhausenschlösschen. He plays the role of the cat, narrating and making music together with the children.

Suitable for children of 4 to 8 years.

Story time

Fairy tales with Ferdinand, the castle cat, the Frankfurter Bürgerstiftung preschool choir and two Romanian children’s stories

Ferdinand, the castle cat lives at the Holzhausenschlösschen in Frankfurt, where he feels happy and at home. However, he is, of course, interested in everything that is happening in the world and what people are talking about. In Romania, for example. He is therefore especially pleased to meet little Mircea. He comes from a story by Paul Goma called “From the beginning”. This is about words and their sound, what people are allowed to say and what is best left unsaid.

And Ferdinand comes into contact with Romania a second time. This occasion concerns a Romanian dog-head fish. A boy named Paul spots it early one morning after waking up. “When he opened his eyes, the cat had disappeared, but a huge fish with a dog’s head was swimming through the blue sea of the sky.” And so Paul’s story continues. Ferdinand found him in Dumitru Tsepeneag’s story “The Liar”. Incidentally, the author of the castle cat stories is Clemens Greve, the director of the Frankfurter Bürgerstiftung and head of programmes for the Holzhausenschlösschen. He plays the role of the cat, narrating and making music together with the children.

Suitable for children of 4 to 8 years.