Mourning Day for Maria Biesu

There is a National Mourning Day in Moldova today, May 19. The people bid farewell to the National Opera Prima Donna Maria Biesu. The national flags in all the country’s settlements are flown at half mast. A minute’s silence will be observed in memory of the opera singer at 12 noon, Info-Prim Neo reports. All those who loved Maria Biesu can say goodbye to her at the National Opera House in Chisinau. A LED TV set was placed in front of the Opera House, where sequences of the soprano’s life will be shown throughout the funeral. The people started to gather at the National Opera House at 09am with flowers for the Prima Donna. A mourning meeting will take place at 12 noon. Afterward, the coffin will be conveyed to the Central Orthodox Cemetery situated on Alexei Mateevici St. Maria Biesu was a people’s artist, a laureate of Prize Awards, university teacher, academician, Doctor Honoris-Causa, and a holder of the Order of the Republic and of the National Order “Romania’s Star”. Maria Biesu was born on August 3, 1935 in Volintiri village, Stefan-Voda district. She dedicated all her life to the stage and universal music, achieved remarkable results in the country and abroad and was recognized as one of the greatest opera singers of the universal culture. Throughout her life, Maria Biesu sang the main arias of the operas of the National Opera House repertoire. She won prizes at prestigious international contests, including the Third Prize at the International Contest “P.I. Tchaikovsky” in Moscow (1966), and the First Prize and the Golden Cup for the best interpretation of the role of Madame Butterfly in the opera “Madame Butterfly” at the International Singing Contest “Miura Tamaki” in Tokyo (1967). In1987, Maria Biesu was named president of the Union of Musicians of Moldova and vice president of the World Union of Musicians of Moscow in 1992, while from 1990 she had acted as the president of the International Opera and Ballet Festival “Maria Biesu Invites” that will turn 20 this year. Maria Biesu was also the president of honor of the Women’s Association of Moldova, representing Moldova’s women all over the world.