Books

You are most welcome on November 14th, 2019, from 7:00 pm, at  NTB Librarium, with a unique exhibition focusing on Constantin Lungeanu, with photos from his personal archive, posters from the interwar period and many other surprises. At the same time, director Mihai Lungeanu, his son, will follow the thread of time and share moments from Constantin Lungeanu's life.

Ion Vasilescu's songs "Let me show you Bucharest by night" or "Let us meet on Saturday night" have crossed the 20th century in many famous performances as musical brands of Bucharest, but does anyone nowadays remember the name of the one who released them?

Constantin Lungeanu sang them for the first time, on the stage of the Alhambra theatre. His voice wrote a major page in the history of the Romanian variety theatre during the interwar period, and his acting talent and personal charm are testified by the first Romanian films, as well as by the presence in the cast of historical films produced after 1960.

Musical, theatre and film actor, student of Lucia Sturdza Bulandra, Constantin Lungeanu , for a decade, has made a career in theatre and film in the dynamic world of Paris, and has also conquered the hearts of the audience with a warm voice and good vocal range. He returned to the country after 1934 and established his fame as a star of the Alhambra theatre, being often invited to the stages of other private theatres in Bucharest. However, his international destiny was blocked by the bureaucracy of a controversial regime, which refused his departure for Hollywood, where he had been called for qualities that had recommended him for the film musical.

Even if the collective memory did not retain and emphasize his name, Constantin Lungeanu remains a complex artist and a distinct personality, who cannot be overlooked, when we talk about the evolution of the Romanian inter-war musical.

"Path that leads to Bucharest ..." state, almost conclusively for this destiny, the first verses of the hit of the Bucharest of yore, sung for the first time by Constantin Lungeanu. The paths of the theatre, film and music affectionately connected him to the two big cities where he left his fingerprint of talent, building a unique artistic profile, which we evoke in the beginning of an inspired programme of artistic recoveries.

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu