Vasile Moldoveanu

Vasile Moldoveanu (born 6 October 1935) is a Romanian tenor. He was born in Constanța. After attending the Mircea cel Bătrân High School in his native city, Moldoveanu studied voice at the "Ciprian Porumbescu" University of Music in Bucharest under the supervision of the tenor Dinu Bădescu, as a student in the class prepared by Octav Enigărescu. His debut was at the Romanian Opera in Bucharest on 9 January 1966; he played Arlecchino in Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo. His career in Romania was relatively short: he performed at the Romanian Opera for seven seasons between 1966 and 1971. He sang in 22 operas, mainly in secondary roles, but also in main roles such as Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi), Rodolfo (La bohème), Il Duca di Mantova (Rigoletto), Ernesto (Don Pasquale), and Tamino (Die Zauberflöte, which was his last performance in Romania, on 23 June 1972). He also appeared in secondary roles on the first opera LPs from Electrecord,(La traviata, Samson et Dalila and Carmen). In 1971 he was invited by the Viktor Vladarski and Friedrich Pasch agencies to a series of auditions in Germany. After initial difficulties in obtaining a visa because he was not a member of the Romanian Communist Party, he arrived in Germany in 1972 and decided not to return to Romania. The authorities started an inquiry and he was sentenced to the death penalty in his absence, his refusal to return to the country during a "mission of representation of the Romanian state" being interpreted as treason.…