THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA DOI number 10.2478/tco-2020-0021 Romanian National Opera of Cluj-Napoca – a Century of Existence beyond the Limits of the Times Stanca Maria BOGDAN Abstract: On September 18, 2019, the Romanian National Opera of Cluj- Napoca celebrated its 100th anniversary and on May 25, 2020, it also celebrated a century from its inaugural performance. The birth of a cultural institution represents in itself the first overcoming of a limit: the limit of perpetuity. The concept of limit arose with the awareness of the finite essence of human nature in relation to its need for evolution and, concurrently, with the craving for freedom, exemplary being a desirable consequence of challenging the limit. In this context, humans discovered and endowed art concurrently with the purpose and gift of sublimating them, of guide them in their effort to explore, understand, affirm and overcome their condition. From the multitude of artistic expressions, opera appears to be, perhaps, the most complex genre. From this perspective, the Romanian National Opera of Cluj-Napoca not only has the virtue of being the first institution of this kind in the country, but also of fully observing its artistic status, of triumphantly overcoming all the challenges it, at a historical scale, through the mists of time. Now that the institution has celebrated its centennial, this is no longer a mere trial, but a confirmation. Through its accomplishments, the Cluj Opera has all arguments to be confident in its ability to persevere in going beyond the most recurrent of limits: the future. Key words: art, times, limit, opera, Cluj-Napoca Throughout its evolution, human condition has toiled between predestination and the struggle to decide, to forge one's own destiny. There’s a saying that goes something like: „God helps those who help themselves”. From this point of view, history has given us several favorable circumstances Soprano, associate assistant professor at the School of Theater and Film of the “Babeş- Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca, PhD student of the Doctoral School of Music and Theater of the West University of Timişoara 70 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA when for going forward, towards something that didn’t seem possible, all it took was the exercise of one’s own will. Nevertheless, such accomplishment requires more than an exceptional circumstance – it also requires exceptional characters. The creation of modern Romania, on December 1st 1918 was such a moment, as several notable persons understood and were able to rise above their own individualities, and through a collective effort, to accomplish a common desiderata of a large majority. In an extremely interesting note, the Resolution of Alba Iulia, which consecrated the foundation of the future Romanian state, had no explicit mention of the arts, and they were only implied. Moreover, in the Governing Council of Transylvania, Banat and the Romanian lands in Hungary, a political body with limited legislative, executive and administrative powers, established on December 2, 1918 as a kind of provisional regional government, there was no resort (ministry) dedicated to culture and the arts, and they were subsumed to the Resort of Cults and Public Instruction (a sort of Ministry of Cults and Public Education) which was led by Vasile Goldiş. However, in a short amount time, culture and art would become one of the main levers for social and identity consolidation, mass inoculation of civic and moral principles and even homogenization of ethnic-regional differences that dominated the society of those times. Brief delimitation of the limit There are two dimensions within which the concept of limit operates: an ontological one and an axiological one. In each of these, the perception of the limit is reflected in a finitude conditioned by the manifestation of a higher consciousness, one that is above the primal instincts and reasoning. „The limit therefore appears as an intersection of the infinite freedom of consciousness with the absolute necessity to which the finite being is subjected.”1. As human nature goes, the notion of limit acquires multiple meanings, with both positive and negative connotations and they all derive from the inner turmoil of one’s own existential meaning, both individually and universally. 1 Gabriel Liiceanu, Tragicul. O fenomenologie a limitei şi depăşirii, Bucureşti, Humanitas Publishing House, 1993, p. 46 71 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA The limit consists of one’s own mind, own body, the predestination, life itself (as the body is perceived as a prison and death as a release). The temptation of the limit, the conflict with it arises from the desire to expand the self, imagination, knowledge, feelings. Therefore, the limit that needs to be overcome is the inner limit (personal or common for a collective/society), perceived as an inadequacy and introduced into a projective, volitional and formative system. A person’s freedom primordially derives from the dialogue with their own inner limits and it’s only in the presence of a project that those limits are transformed into limits to be overcome, in completion. Therefore, even on the historical scale of mankind, the progress of freedom does not begin by fighting, canceling the imposed outer limits, but, primarily, by a dispute with the natural limits within each and every person, which represents every person's life struggle with themselves. Consequently, the limit is obstacle, fence, boundary, endeavor, breakthrough. As „man alone simultaneously represents the limit and the self- awareness of the limit”2, it is understood that „ the only insurmountable limit is finitude itself”3. And „if the limit is the destiny of the finite being, the effort of the conscience is not to justify, to understand and to obey, but to see the limit as an injustice and, by debating with it, an open path to immortality through deed and creation”4. And if man is finite, in contrast, limit is infinite. Overcoming a limit attracts a new limit, in a perpetual dynamic. Basically, regardless of how many limits one overcomes, man always remains a prisoner within it. The only limit beyond which, apparently, the conflict settles down, is death. In terms of value, the limit is submitted to esthetic judgement. There are limits of good, just as there are limits of evil. Furthermore, the temptation of evil beyond the limit of cruelty, as an expression of the destructive nature pushed all the way to murder, most often manifested by fanaticism, is one of the most virulent constants of human nature, which has many times even created pattern. Though repudiated by 2 Idem, p. 47 3 Ibidem, p. 48 4 Ibidem, p. 97 72 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA most, challenging the limit of evil only makes the limits of absolute good, of virtue seeking the ideal, the ineffable, that much stronger. Regardless of the expression, overcoming the positive limit, towards the priceless goodness, cultivates exemplarity and its vital element is excellence. Without it, any temptation pf the limit is gratuitous and devoid of any content. The enemy of "beyond the limits" is norm, the common place, habitude, convenience. This places it into an illusory freedom, as „obedience to the limit annuls consciousness as liberty”5. This way, „any existence can end up under the sign of mediocrity and any society can stagnate under the sign of the need for its own framework. If life had a price in itself, it would become a mere adjustment to an perpetually larger circle of natural needs, just as a society accepted as such would only be guided by the imperatives of a conformist mentality. Because in nature there is no premise of the need for culture (creation) outside consciousness itself, just like presently there is no premise of the need for the future, outside future itself”6. Art represents in itself most dense and intense human manner of breaking out from the limits through imagination. Starting with the ancient tragedy which cultivated the very limit of death as a general triumph of exemplary life, the whole content of art appears as a diverse palette of expression of the idea that, through beauty, human dimension knows no limit that cannot be overcome. It is, however, worth mentioning that when in art tempting a limit has no substance, no merits, but only represents a purpose in itself expressed through subjective innovations, the consequence is only a mere crossing “beyond” in an area of nothingness. It is only the expression if the artistic powerlessness to traverse the limit through essence and the endeavor which also became a current in the entertainment arts to show off through style and form. Finally, confronting the limit and overcoming it teaches us that nothing is achieved without effort, without suffering, and that „under the tension of 5 Ibidem, p. 82 6 Ibidem, p. 83 73 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA meeting the limit, the sublime is born from the conversion of suffering by overturning into its opposite”7, towards the state of catharsis. Art – Opera - Institution In principle, art does not need institutional architectures to exist and to be manifested. It resides, multiplies and is diffused by simply stating the vocation of individuals with artistic ambitions. When it puts on the mantle of an institution under a public authority, art becomes an instrument that no longer addresses the individual, but the collective. In principle, through the institution of culture, the state assumes the mission of providing its citizens with the possibility to develop and to accede to the sublime. When we refer to the opera, we're dealing with the most syncretic of the art genres, located at the top of the performing arts pyramid. In a harmonious conglomerate, opera includes text, extremely elaborate instrumental music, vocal and theatrical performance, stage movement and dance, shape and color.