“Peer Gynt” and Enescu’s “Ghosts”

Gabriel Bebeşelea is the Principal Conductor of the “Transylvania” State Philharmonic Orchestra of Cluj-Napoca.
Admired for his enthusiasm and musicality, his reputation grew substantially and rapidly over the last years, establishing him as a fast-rising star of the conducting world.

Highlights of the 2018/2019 and the 2019/2020 season include performances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Tonkunstler Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Evgeny Svetlanov”, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

With the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, he recorded a CD featuring George Enescu’s rediscovered oratorio “Strigoii” (The Ghosts) and his “Pastorale – Fantaisie pour petite orchestre” (edition curated by Gabriel Bebeşelea). The CD was released under the label Capriccio in September 2018.
At 31 years of age, Gabriel Bebeşelea is recognized as “one of the most gifted conductors born in the last decades in Romania” (George Enescu Festival Journal, September 7th 2011) and is winner of the first prize of the “Lovro von Matačić” Conducting Competition (Zagreb 2015) and the first prize in the “Jeunesses Musicales” Conducting Competition (Bucharest 2011). Gabriel Bebeşelea was semifinalist of the “Donatella Flick” Conducting Competition of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2014 and semifinalist of the Gustav Mahler Competition of the Bamberg Symphony in 2016.

A notable opera conductor, Bebeşelea was named Principal Conductor of the Romanian National Opera of Iaşi in 2011, becoming the youngest ever Principal Conductor in Romania. In 2015 he was named Principal Conductor of the National Romanian Opera House of Cluj-Napoca. In 2014 he was presented with the “Best Conductor” award at the Romanian National Opera Houses Awards.
Recent highlights that cemented his good reputation as an operatic conductor included conducting the new production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Tsar’s Bride” at the Perm Opera and Rossini’s “Il viaggio a Reims” at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. The performances have been highly acclaimed by audiences and critics alike. With the “Transylvania” State Philharmonic Orchestra of Cluj-Napoca, Gabriel Bebeşelea presents the complete “Der Ring des Nibelungen” (The Ring Cycle) by Richard Wagner as semi-staged performances over the course of four seasons. As of now, “Das Rheingold” and “Die Walküre” have been put on stage, Gabriel Bebeşelea being also responsible for the staging and lighting concept of the performances.
In 2015, Gabriel Bebeşelea studied with two of the world’s most appreciated conductors: Bernard Haitink at the Lucerne Festival at Easter and with Kurt Masur at the Aurora Classical Festival.

Furthermore, in 2011 he was awarded a scholarship consisting of an internship at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, where he had the possibility to assist at the rehearsals and concerts of some of the most representative conductors nowadays: Mariss Jansons, Bernard Haitink, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Philippe Herreweghe, David Zinman and Eliahu Inbal.
In 2010 he graduated with “summa cum laude” from the Cluj-Napoca Music Academy with a Bachelor’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting as a pupil of Petre Sbarcea. Two years later he graduated the Master’s Degree Program of the National University of Music Bucharest as a student of Horia Andreescu’s Orchestra Conducting Class.

In 2018, Gabriel Bebeşelea obtained his PhD with “summa cum laude” at the National University of Music Bucharest for his Doctoral thesis “The Research of the Compositional Manuscripts, Premise and Stake of the Conducting Interpretation” under the guidance of Dan Dediu. He currently resides in Vienna where he graduated the Postgraduate Studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, at the class of Mark Stringer.

Considered to be one of the most interesting Romanian singers of her generation, Rodica Vica’s dramatic coloratura voice is being highly appreciated among the borders of her country as well as abroad. A versatile artist, Rodica Vica is at her ease in bravery baroque and belcanto repertoire.

At only 24 she took over the title role in Mozart’s Queen of the Night at the Bucharest National Opera. She made regular appearances on this stage in Rita (G. Donizetti), Alcina (G. Fr. Händel), La Cenerentola (G. Rossini), L’ Elisir d’Amore (G. Donizetti). For the last three seasons she was invited to sing Donna Anna in a new production of Don Giovanni. Adding new roles to her repertoire, Rodica Vica performed in various Romanian opera houses and concert venues. At the Iassy National Opera she sang in the rarely performed Rameau’s opera “Les Indes Galantes”, directed by the renowned Andrei Serban. In 2015 Rodica Vica joined Ottavio Dantone and his prestigious ensemble Accademia Bizantina in the opening concert of the Varazdin International Baroque Festival in Croatia with a Vivaldi program. The same year, her baroque arias recital at Teatro La Fenice was highly acclaimed in Venice. In Austria, she was invited to sing Donna Anna at Klassik Festival Schloss Kirchstetten. In 2016, the soprano performed a George Enescu songs recital as part of the Oedipe Month in London series of events to include also artists and creative crew of the “Oedipe” new production at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. In July, Rodica Vica returned to Klassik Festival Schloss Kirchstetten in Austria to sing Norina in “Don Pasquale”. At the end of 2016, soprano Rodica Vica obtained the title of Doctor of Musical Arts and her doctoral research titled “Händelian stilemas, influences and sources revealed in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s operas”. During 2017 she performed many concerts in Romania, Germany Hungary, Bulgaria and Austria related with her doctoral research and in September she returned to George Enescu Festival for an open-air concert alongside Sinfonietta Wien. In November 2017 she made her debut in a contemporary opera “In Body” composed by Diana Rotaru and at the end of the year she did the premiere recording of George Enescu’s newly discovered oratorio The Ghosts (Strigoii) alongside Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin for a CD which was released by Capriccio Records in September 2018. At the beginning of 2018 she returned to Romania in Cluj-Napoca for Mozart’s Missa in c minor and she was invited for the first time to the Budapest Early Music Festival. In November 2018 alongside the renown Austrian zither player Barbara Laister- Ebner, she released a new CD in Vienna’s Musikverein, dedicated to the lullabies from the world. In 2019 among other events, Rodica Vica will make her debut at Auditorio Nacional di Musica, Madrid and at Konzerthaus, Berlin.

After a 12 years mentorship by the Romanian soprano Eleonora Enăchescu, Rodica Vica is currently guided by the worldwide known soprano Krassimira Stoyanova.

Born in Cluj Napoca, Romania, Tiberius Simu has begun the study of music at a young age, starting with violin, then piano and later clasical singing, which he turned into his profession.

After graduating as both an opera regisseur and singer from the Accademy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj, Tiberius Simu received a scholarship at the famous Accademia del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, where he had the opportunity to work with some of the great singers of the operatic world: Renato Bruson, Leyla Gencer, Mirella Freni and Lucianna Serra, to name a few.

After finishing his period of studies in Milano, Tiberius Simu enrolled in the ensemble of the Oper Leipzig, where, over a period of 2 years he appeard as Alfredo in La Traviata, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Count Almaviva in The barber of Seville, Tamino in The magic flute and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni.

Over the next years, Tiberius Simu was a guest of opera theaters across Europe, singing Tamino at the Staatsoper in Vienna, Don Ottavio at the Frankfurt Opera, Lucio Silla at the Opera de Nantes, Fenton in Falstaff at the Theatre Royal de Wallonie in Liege, or Nemorino at Toulon Opera.

His interests have been also in the world of operetta, as Tiberius Simu appeared as Camille de Rossion in The Merry Widow at the Teatro Communale di Padova, Italy, and also in the title role of Lehar’s The Zarewitsch, at the Seefestspiele Morbisch. Upon returning to his hometown, Tiberius Simu started teaching at the Accademy of Music “Gheorghe Dima”, where he teaches within the Performing Arts Department of the accademy. Also, a permanent collaborator of the Opera of Cluj, Tiberius Simu added to his repertoire new roles such as Gabriel Eisentein the Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, or Danilo Danilovitsch in Lehar’s The Merry Widow.

One the passions that spans over 2 decades in Tiberius Simu’s activity is the passion for chamber music, as he performed numerous lied recitals with works by Mozart, Schumann, Schubert, Maler, Faure, Bizet, Massenet, Verdi and Wagner.

Also, in recent years, Tiberius Simu has added numerous sacral music works to his repertoire, works like Bethooven’s 9th Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Matthaus Passion, Schubert’s E flat Mass, and Britten’s War Requiem, to name just some of the most well-known works.

The Romanian baritone Bogdan Baciu studied with Marius Vlad Budoiu at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Cluj- Napoca. He has won numerous awards at national and international competitions, including the 3rd prize at the Romanian National Song Competition in 2008 and the 3rd prize at the prestigious international Hariclea Darclée Competition in 2010. During his studies and time at the opera studio, he attended master classes with Mariana Nicolesco, Deborah Polaski, David Cyrus and Thomas Allen.

His repertoire includes roles such as Papageno (Mozart’s Magic Flute), Don Giovanni (Mozart), Figaro (Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia), Dottore Malatesta (Donizetti’s Don Pasquale), Marcello (Puccini’s La Bohème), Silvio (Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci), Escamillo (Bizet’s Carmen), Ping (Puccini’s Turandot), Enrico (Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor), Harlequin (Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos) or Heerrufer (Wagner’s Lohengrin). He has participated in numerous recitals and concerts with most of the Romanian philharmonic orchestras and opera houses. At the Stuttgart State Opera, he sang Marcello (Puccini’s La Bohème) in 2014 and Dandini (Rossini’s La cenerentola) in 2015. In the 2011/12 season, Bogdan Baciu was a member of the opera studio of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Dusseldorf – Duisburg. Since the 2012/13 season, he has been a member of the soloists’ ensemble, singing the roles of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Escamillo. The 2016/17 season found him singing Papageno, Escamillo, Heerrufer, Marcello and Ping on opera stages in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Dresden and Essen and holding debuts as Rodrigo de Posa (Verdi’s Don Carlo) in Duisburg, Der Geisterbote (Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten) in Hamburg and Valentin (Gounod’s Faust) with Vilnius City Opera. The season 2017/18 offered him three important debuts: as Renato (Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera) and Sharpless (Puccini’s Madama Butterfly) in Dusseldorf and as Onegin (Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin) at the Opera national du Rhin in Strasbourg, France.

Alin Anca was born 1986 in Romania. He studied singing at the Gheorghe Dime Music Academy in Cluj, obtaining 2010 his diploma.

Already during his studies he had been engaged at the Romanian National Opera Cluj, for roles as Grand Inquisitor / Don Carlo, Fiorillo / Il barbiere di Siviglia, Dulacamara / L’elisir d’amore, Colline / La Bohème and the title role in Don Giovanni. Further engagements brought him to the National Opera Bucharest (Dulcamara / L’elisir d’amore).

He appeared also in the vocal-symphonic repertoire: Puccini – Messa di Gloria, Dvorák – Stabat Mater, Verdi – Requiem, Mozart- Requiem, Haydn – Harmony Mess.

Between 2011 and 2013 he was a member of the Young Artist’s Project of the State Opera Berlin.

Since 2013 Alin Anca is soloist of the Hamburg State Opera and could be heard in La fanciulla del West, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Les Troyens, La battaglia di legnano, Simon Boccanegra, Un ballo in maschera, Aida, Otello, La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, Lucrezia Borgia, Die Zauberflöte, Salome, Arabella, Ariadne auf Naxos, etc.).

He gave his debut at the Bavarian State Opera Munich as Pistola / Falstaff in 2017 and sang in the same year Mathis der Maler by Hindemith, under the baton of Lawrence Foster at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest.

Recordings: „Ghosts“ CD (by G. Enescu) for Capriccio, with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.