Pompeiu Harasteanu

Opera Singer. A basso, he is remembered for his long career at the Bucharest National Opera (BNO). Raised in Ludus, he studied at the Parumbescu Conservatory, during his time there winning a number of international competitions, and made his 1966 BNO bow as Ferrando from Verdi's "Il Trovatore". Over the next decades he was to give roughly 8,000 performances and recitals, primarily in Bucharest, though from 1968 thru 1972 he resided in West Germany where he was principal bass of Opera Bonn, his assignments including King Philip in Verdi's "Don Carlos", Prince Gremin from Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin", Jacopo Fiesco of Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra", Raimondo from Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor", the Devil in Gounod's "Faust", Silva from Verdi's "Ernani", Wotan of Wagner's "Ring Cycle", Osmin in Mozart's "The Abduction From the Seraglio", Don Basilio of Rossini's "The Barber of Seville", Sparafucile in Verdi's "Rigoletto", the Four Villains of Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann", Konchak