Romanian Athenaeum

An exhibition of David Leventi‘s photographs, Opera Houses, is opening at the Arthur Roger Gallery on August 7th and will run through September 11th, 2010.

“The project, Bjoerling’s Larynx: World Famous Opera Houses, is titled after Jussi Björling, a Swedish operatic tenor and arguably the best singer of the century – known for his technique, feeling and the range of his voice. Bjoerling debuted at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm and eventually became a principal at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. These two spaces – and the others that I have photographed thus far – are the spaces in which my grandfather, Anton Gutman, never got the chance to perform. Gutman was a cantor trained right after World War II by Helge Rosvaenge, a famous Danish operatic tenor who sang regularly with the State Operas in Berlin and Vienna. While Gutman was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp in the Soviet Union, he performed for prisoners and officers. Nearly a half-century later, I grew up listening to him sing while he walked around our living room. As the son of two architects, I experience an almost religious feeling walking into a grand space such as an opera house.” – David Leventi

To view more of Leventi’s Opera Houses click here.