You are here
On January 15 the birthday anniversary of the Romanian genius Mihai Eminescu. 16.01.2017
On January 15 the birthday anniversary of the Romanian genius Mihai Eminescu was celebrated in Moldova and Romania, as well as all over the world among the populous Romanian diasporas. In fact, this day has been declared ‘Culture Day’ in Bucharest and Kishinev.
It is for the third time that my friends, poets, journalists, artist and government officials, friends of Eminescu’s poetry, gathered at the Eugen Doga Salon on this day. Monica Babuk, Minister of Culture, our friend and ardent lover of the folkloric arts, appeared with a huge bouquet of white roses along with YurieKirimenchuk, Minster of Transportation, whose little daughter held onto his hand.
I call it "Șăzători" or “Get-together.” The walls of the large hall of the Winter Garden featured paintings of a wonderful Moldovan painter Tudor Zbyrnya. The guests settled on the sofa, on the bench covered with Moldovan blankets embroidered by my mom, and simply on stools. A huge mass of guests, as is customary in salons, simply stood around. They stood in the Winter Garden where there were many television cameras and mass media reporters. In the Salon itself video cameras and radio microphones had been set up.
In the back of the hall, in front of the mirror wall that enlarged the space and created cozy atmosphere, Teleradio Moldova Quartet headed by Lilia Bivol premiered my 5th string quartet. After that, the girls from the Spiru Haret Lyceum with their soloist Nikoleta Puyu performed a few winter carols that M. Eminescu was very fond of listening to and singing as a child. Next came the school girls from the choir Vochile Primaveriy, led by Madalena Manya, and performed classical music along with one of my songs to Veronica Micle’s verses called “Snowdrops.” The Liceum named in the honor of Chiprian Porumbescu directed by the talented pedagogue Galina Buinowski performed brilliantly as usual. Their program included my two new pieces for fortepiano that I had composed during the last few minutes of the old year and the first minutes of the new one. One of the pieces is called “Salon” and the other -“The Awakening.” The showcase of young talent was continued by the children of the music school that bears my name directed by the kind mother of the institution, the thoughtful pedagogue Nadezhda Lungu. Their repertoire included violin ensembles and performance by a tiny pianist and accordionists.
I’m particularly fond of children, which I’ve told my guests about in my speech. My childhood fell on the hard war years and I, just as the rest of my generation, had to grow up early on and work alongside the adults. Our real childhood was destroyed by the war.
The performance by the distinguished opera singer Mariana Bulikanu was a delight. She performed a large aria to Veronica Micle’s verses “Don’t Cry” (Nu plânge) from my new opera “Dialogues of Love”. Equally delightful was Tatiana Kostyuk who performed a romance to the verses of Mihai Eminescu “Oh, Wait” (O, rămâi). My old friend and art lover Yuri Sadovnik also performed two songs about mothers accompanied by guitar. Poets Vasile Romanchuk, Nikolae Dabidja and Luminitsa Dumbrevyanu took turns in reading their poetry dedicated to the great poet M. Eminescu.
To end the evening, a recording of the Hymn to Shtefan the Great composed to Eminescu’s verses was played. Meanwhile, autographs were signed, pictures were taken for keepsakes and Tudor Zbyrni’s paintings were revisited once again.
Our sponsors were exceptionally generous when it came to providing delicious treats for our guests. Among them was Nikolai Avram with his traditional plachintas and different starters from the La Plachinte Café and Alexandru Sukalov with excellent coffee from the Coffee Grinder Café. As always, Alla Glovan provided her wonderful pastry.
I thank from the bottom of my heart them and my lovely friends: musicians, artists and poets, as well as the press, the radio and television and my numerous fans for visiting me at the Salon in order to pay homage to our great genius poet Mihai Eminescu on his birthday, on Culture Day. I didn’t close off a whole block with security when people, even strangers, flowed in from the street with flowers. On this day, the doors of my home on Eminescu Street were open, as was the soul of the great poet Mihai Eminescu.
1997-2017 (c) Eugen Doga. All rights reserved.