2011-05-31

“Let’s change something here” - Ioan Holender, back home in Timisoara

The former director of Vienna State Opera, Ioan Holender, one of the most famous Romanians in the world, Honorary Citizen of Timisoara, the city of his birth where he lived until the age of 24, was more then welcome by the municipality and all the citizens.
On the 20th of April, the mayor Gheorghe Ciuhandu offered a diploma of "honorary ambassador for the support and promotion of Timisoara application for the title of European Cultural Capital."
Last year in Vienna thousands of people, including Austria's president and other key political leaders, gathered at the farewell concert organized in honor of Ioan Holender, who led the Vienna State Opera for 19 years, between 1st April 1992 and 30th August 2010 and was the longest in the history of the institution's directorate.
Back in the city of his birth, in the evening of 27th May, former director of the Vienna Opera was in the Opera Square both the film character and the spectator.
The two hundred seats brought to the center by the municipality were not enough for those who wanted to see the film "Holi", projected on a large screen, film which was made years ago by TVR Timisoara and Brândua Armanca, the director of Romanian Cultural Insitute from Budapesta. People were standing to hear the stories about the capital of Banat, about ... "the life and the miracles" of a legendary character, Ioan Holender itself. At the end of the film, he brought his wife and two children, Alan and Alina, in front of the people applausing. The evening continued with sequences from the maestro's farewell concert, organized in Vienna in June last year. "I invite you all tomorrow night at the Philharmonic concert. All tickets were sold, but we will handle it, said "Holi" to the spectators.
This year the municipality decided to organize a concert on the 28th of May, at the Capitol Hall, entitled "Ioan Holender and his guests".. The tenors Stefan Pop and Teodor Ilinci and the sopranos Anita Hartig and Simina Ivan participated in the show with actors from the three state theaters from Timisoara, who read some interviews given by the maestro. The concert, which gathered hundreds of spectators, was conducted by Gheorghe Costin. The most unusual recitals were without doubt Ioan Holender's children. His son, Liviu, played the concert nr.1 for piano and orchestra by Beethoven, and his 13 years doughter, Alina, performed the concert in C minor for cello and orchestra by Bach.

Also on this occasion it was released the book "Said, lived and desired. Memories" wrote by Ioan Holender, and also the book "Ioan Holender: from Vienna to Timisoara" by Vasile Bogdan and Cornel Ungureanu, including a series of dialogues between the maestro and the two authors.
With the slogan Lets change something here Ioan Holender started a campaign for Timisoara to become European Cultural Capital in 2020. He is currently artistic counselor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, The State Opera in Budapest, The Spring Festival in Tokyo and the artistic director of George Enescu Festival from Bucharest.
Biographical landmarks:
- born in Timisoara (1935)
- attended Facultatea de Mecanica Timisoara (Institutul Politehnic) (1953-1956)
- left Timisoara in 1959, destination Vienna
1960-1962: Studied classical singing at the Vienna Konservatorium
1962-1966: Opera singer (Vienna and Klagenfurt)
1966-1988: Opera agent
1988-1992: General Secretary of Wiener Staatsoper and Volksoper
In 1992, Ioan Holender became the Director of the Wiener Staatsoper (term ends in 2007, unless extended)
Ioan Holender also teaches at the Vienna University (Institute of Theater, Film, and Media Science) (as of April 2003)
MEDALS and AWARDS
- Grand Golden Honorary Medal of the Austrian Republic
- Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy
- Officier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, awarded by the French Republic
- Honorary Citizen of Timisoara
- Golden Medal of Merit, awarded by Vienna Municipality
- Austrian Honorary Cross for Science and Art, First Class
- Doctor Honoris Causa of George Enescu University of Arts from Iai
- Doctor Honoris Causa of National Music University from Bucharest
- Doctor Honoris Causa of Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music from Cluj-Napoca,
... and many others
BOOKS
- Ioan Holender. Der Lebensweg des Wiener Staatsoperndirektors . Autobiografie, bearbeitet von Marie-Theres Arnbom. Wien, Böhlau, 2001
- Ich bin noch nicht fertig, Hanser Verlag, 2010

By Florin LUCHIAN, PhD at George Enescu University of Arts from Iai, Romania
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