National Operetta and Musical Theatre "Ion Dacian"

About

The Ion Dacian National Operetta and Musical Theatre in Bucharest is a national cultural institution reestablished in November 2016 by the Romanian government. It is funded by the Ministry of Culture. Located in the heart of the capital on the banks of the Dâmbovița, next to Octavian Goga Boulevard, the theatre inherits a long history and a heritage of performances created and staged over past centuries. Since 2015, it has been housed in a brand-new building specifically designed for musical performances. It is named after tenor Ion Dacian (1911–1981). The theatre embraces a variety of musical genres for Romanian audiences, with a recent emphasis on musical comedies followed by operettas. Following common practice in the world of operetta, performances are always presented in the national language, Romanian, although some songs are occasionally performed in their original language.

Romanian operetta, as performed in its early years and throughout the various periods it has undergone, derives its origins and influences from two principal traditions: French operetta and Viennese operetta. Numerous composers and librettists—initially foreign and later Romanian—studied in Paris, Berlin, Milan, Madrid, or Vienna, and subsequently introduced these musical and theatrical cultures first to Transylvania and later to Wallachia. French and Viennese influences soon became predominant, particularly through the works of Jacques Offenbach and Johann Strauss. French and Viennese operettas featured prominently in productions created abroad and were regularly performed in Romania; they also served as sources of inspiration for original Romanian compositions from 1850 onward.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the former guinguette-café known as Terasa Oteteleșanu, located on Calea Victoriei in Bucharest an emblematic venue of interwar social and cultural life, played a key role as an informal space for the dissemination of music and light theatre. Operetta and vaudeville companies, such as the one led by the tenor Constantin Grigoriu, presented the genre's repertoire there to an increasingly receptive Bucharest audience, thereby contributing to its growing familiarity with European operetta. The urban transformations carried out between 1930 and 1934 led to the disappearance of the Terasa Oteteleșanu: on the site of the garden and café, the Palatul Telefoanelor was erected, a modern Art Deco building reflecting the architectural and functional changes of Bucharest. Thus disappeared one of the most vibrant informal stages of Bucharest's musical and theatrical life yet its memory remains at the origin of the process of institutionalizing operetta in the capital.

In the postwar climate, against the backdrop of the reconfiguration of theatrical life in Romania, the State Operetta Theatre was founded in 1950 and opened its doors on 7 November with the premiere of Vânt de libertate ( The Wind of Liberty ) by Isaak Dunayevsky. This institution took up the legacy of the operetta repertoire cultivated at the Terasa Oteteleșanu and in other informal venues, while providing a stable structure, a permanent repertoire, and professional practitioners of the genre, thus becoming the organized nucleus of operetta life in Bucharest. Thus, the evolution from a summer venue such as the Terasa Oteteleșanu to the professional stage of the State Operetta Theatre reflects the transformation of operetta performances, shifting from a private, convivial, and seasonal initiative to their institutionalization within a permanent theatrical framework recognized at the national level.

These developments marked the early foundations of a modern musical life in the Romanian lands, initially attracting the aristocracy and, subsequently, the emerging bourgeoisie. The principalities were no longer a terra incognita for Western Europeans, especially since artistic itineraries linking Saint Petersburg and Istanbul commonly passed through Transylvania and the Danubian lands. Concerts were given there by figures such as Franz Liszt, Bernhard Romberg, Joseph Joachim, Johannes Brahms, and Johann Strauss, among others. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there was a notable influx of theatrical and musical ensembles—opera, vaudeville, Singspiel, and operetta which, whether passing through or settling for shorter or longer periods in the capitals of the principalities (Bucharest and Iași) or in other cities of the region, encountered an already informed and receptive audience. This was further encouraged by the fact that many intellectuals had begun their studies in Western Europe (Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Leipzig, Rome, Milan, Prague), where some of them also received musical training to varying degrees.

In nineteenth-century Romania, it was the Viennese style that achieved the greatest renown and success. The tradition of operetta proved both strong and continuous from its beginnings in the 1830s. At that time, artistic life was largely dominated by vaudeville. The classic and caricatural theme of vaudeville revolves around the wife, the deceived husband, and the "slamming doors": three essential characters—the husband, the wife, and the lover—who appear in rapid succession on stage, cross paths without seeing one another, and give rise to the famous line, "Heavens, my husband!". In 1848, Baba Hârca [ fr ; ro ] ( Baba the Old Witch ) became the first operetta created in Romania, premiered on 26 December 1848 at the National Theatre in Iași by the Moldavian composer of German Saxon origin Alexandru Flechtenmacher [ ro ], who was seeking a distinctly Romanian musical style. The work is a vaudeville with an unusually developed musical dimension. Baba the Witch is a popular figure from traditional Romanian folktales, credited with freezing waters and living in isolation in a cave or at the top of a tall tree; fairy tales also attribute to her a benevolent aspect.

In 1882, another major success marked the birth of operetta in the country: Crai Nou ( The New Moon ), by the young composer Ciprian Porumbescu, with a libretto by Vasile Alecsandri. The premiere took place in Brașov on an improvised stage, the Romanian Gymnasium's festival hall, on 27 February 1882. The work, which highlights Romanian culture and traditions in contrast to Viennese culture, displays a distinctly patriotic character at a time when Transylvania was under Austro-Hungarian rule. It is particularly renowned for its famous Viennese-style chorus and for Porumbescu's success in integrating the Romanian folk spirit—such as the Hora, Doina, peasant dances, and traditional songs—into lyrical art while combining it with Western influences.

Three composers Eduard Caudella with Harță Răzeșul (1872), George Stephănescu with Sânziana și Pepelea (1880), on a libretto by Vasile Alecsandri and Scaiul bărbaților (1885), and Constantin Dimitrescu with Sergentul Cartuș (1895) and Nini (1897), were the first creators of Romanian operettas. They played a pivotal role in cultivating and establishing the Romanian public's keen interest in this art form, a genre that has remained popular to the present day.

The first lyrical companies frequently staged the "classical" works of French composers such as Offenbach and Lecocq. They established their foundations through performers like the tenor Constantin Grigoriu, who, with his troupe, presented nearly the entire operetta repertoire performed on European stages, notably on the renowned Oteteleșanu Terrace in Bucharest. This venue thus helped introduce audiences to artists such as Florica Cristoforeanu [ ro ], Mara d'Asti, Florica Florescu, Ion Băjenaru [ ro ], George Niculescu-Basu [ ro ], Velimir Maximilian [ ro ], and Nae Leonard —as well as theater practitioners such as Constantin Tănase and Nicolae Vlădoianu [ ro ], directors of the "Cărăbuș" and "Alhambra" theater companies.

- Oteteleșanu Terrace, Bucharest, circa 1900

Nae Leonard in Studentul cerşetor ( The Beggar Student ) One particularly gifted artist stood out among the performers of his time: Nae Leonard. A singer, actor, and dancer who would become known as the "Prince of Operetta," he enjoyed an impressive career. Noticed for his exceptional vocal abilities, he was invited to perform with the country's leading operetta company, Constantin Grigoriu's Romanian Lyric Company, taking on principal roles in Jacques Offenbach's La Périchole, Franz Lehár's The Count of Luxembourg, and Edmond Audran's La Mascotte. However, it was his performance as Danielo in Franz Lehár's celebrated operetta The Merry Widow in 1906 that secured his widespread fame. He became a public idol, celebrated in a manner reminiscent of Rudolph Valentino. That same year, he was engaged as principal tenor by the Vienna People's Opera to perform Don José in Carmen, a role that was met with great acclaim by both the press and audiences. After 1918, operetta no longer generated the same enthusiasm in Romania, and Leonard, facing financial difficulties, accepted engagements abroad. Between 1924 and 1926, he performed in Lyon, Paris, and Marseille, where he was warmly received by French audiences, giving 120 performances of Kálmán's Die Bajadere. Suffering from tuberculosis, he returned to Romania and died in his hometown of Câmpulung in 1928.

The epic of the Cărăbuș and Alhambra companies

The tenor's death coincided with the near disappearance of operetta in Romania, which was gradually replaced by musicals and revues. The Cărăbuș Company, founded in 1919 by Constantin Tănase and the Alhambra Company, established in 1931 by Nicolae Vlădoianu [ ro ] and housed in the hall on Strada Sărindar, became specialists in the genre, reviving operetta in the 1930s. Notably, they staged Ralph Benatzky 's The White Horse Inn in 1935 at the Cărăbuș Theatre [ ro ], followed by a nationwide tour lasting nearly two months. Other operettas followed, competing with productions presented by the Alhambra Revue Theatre [ ro ], which had been installed in the Strada Sărindar hall in the autumn of 1931.

- Revue at the Alhambra (top), and The Cărăbuș Troupe (bottom)

- Nicolae Vlădoianu (top right) and Constantin Tănase (bottom) Nicolae Vlădoianu was in search of a new Nae Leonard when he discovered a rising star: the young tenor Ion Dacian at the Cluj Opera. Dacian joined the company in 1939 and would go on to become a leading figure in contemporary Romanian operetta. In 1941, he performed in Der Vogelhändler ( The Bird Seller ) by Carl Zeller, Frühlingsstimmen ( Voices of Spring ), and Wiener Blut (also known as Un vals vienez ) by Johann Strauss II. From 1941 to 1944, operetta tours at the Alhambra, featuring Ion Dacian as the leading tenor, traveled extensively across the country.

In one of his articles, the writer and dramatic critic Mircea Ștefănescu [ ro ] lavishes praise on the tenor:

Domnul Dacian este, pentru operetă, ceea ce aruncă marea la o mie de ani. Dacă nu era domnia sa, opereta trebuia să mai aștepte reînvierea la noi, așa cum sa-a așteptat-o atâta vreme. Nuntă fără mire nu se poate

[ For operetta, Mr Dacian is the elusive artist who appears only once in a millennium. Had it not been for him, operetta would have had to wait even longer for its revival here, just as it had waited for so long. There can be no wedding without a groom. ]

More than sixteen operetta premieres were staged at the Alhambra between 1940 and 1946, a true resurrection of the genre in Romania. Most of them went on tour throughout the country, with Ion Dacian, who became co-director in 1942, performing the leading role. The productions were meticulously crafted, and the stagings were considered remarkable by connoisseurs and critics alike. Some scenes displayed an outpouring of luxury and beauty, as in Eine Nacht in Venedig ( A Night in Venice ), and the performances stood out for their quality and execution.

The page of the history of the Alhambra troupe is definitively turned with its final production in the autumn of 1946: Die Zirkusprinzessin ( The Circus Princess ) by the Hungarian composer Emmerich Kálmán. Despite its favorable reception in Romania, the work proved to be a commercial disaster due to the cost of its tour in the Orient in 1947. Desperate and ruined, the troupe's director, Nicolae Vlădoianu, took his own life that same year, unable to cope with the bankruptcy of his company, which had already been weakened since the end of the war. Constantin Tănase had himself died in 1945, at the height of his fame, surrounded by immense popularity. The causes of his death remain uncertain to this day. According to one unconfirmed hypothesis, he may have been assassinated by the Russians, who were displeased with some of his songs, highly critical of the Soviet occupation, which he had refused to censor or alter.