The Observer, in short

Lead article Carmen Musat recalls Stefan Zeletin’s Din Tara magarilor. Insemnari (From the Asses’ Country. Notes,) from 1925, which holds a mirror to contemporary Romanian politics where combatants fight, kiss and make up. Politics Sabina Fati discusses Ziua’s (The Day’s) attack on Gabriel Liiceanu, who may be understood to represent Romanian intellectuals who stand for freedom of thought and expression. Ciprian Ciucu analyses the Liberal Party’s unproductive administration whose possible fall in the near future brings to mind PSD’s (the Social Democratic Party’s) experience between 2000 and 2004. Recent cultural events Cultural Observer publishes a letter of protest addressed by 50 intellectuals to President Traian Basescu and to the President of the Romanian Academy. The letter addresses dysfunctions at the Institute of History and Literary Theory „G. Calinescu”. Signatories may be found at http://www.petitiononline.com/qd7d8932/petition.html. Praised for its daring expression and condemned as displaying degeneration of the directors’ taste, the premiere of Alexander Hausvater’s Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi (March 3, 2007) at the Bucharest National Opera has lately been the focus of critical controversy. Cultural Observer publishes three perspectives on the performance: one from Hausvater, another from drama critic Iulia Popovici, and a third from music critic Anca Florea. Book […]