Beer and opera in Chisinau

The oriental tradition of combining beer and opera has been brought to Moldova: on Friday evening, Victoria Luncasu, Vitalie Rusu, Cristina Josanu and Andrei Caraman, singers at the National Opera, performed several arias in a pub in Chisinau, to the surprise of customers who had come for beer. The event was organized at the initiative of Union Media Group, Info-Prim Neo reports. The organizers say that this is a tradition in many European countries which aims, among other things, to draw public attention to the precarious state of culture and opera in particular. “We brought opera into a beer pub because those have a drink here don’t usually go to the opera and the surprise effect is stronger”, said one of the organizers. Opera singer Andrei Caraman said there should be more events of this kind in order to promote the culture of Moldova. The customers, unaware of the event, said they were pleasantly surprised. “I realized I like opera more than beer”, said one of them. “I’ve seen things like this only on the Internet. It’d be nice if there were more events like this”, said a Dutchman visiting Moldova.