The National Chamber Choir “Madrigal – Marin Constantin” gave a concert of remarkable emotional intensity on the evening of April 22 at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, an emblematic space of European culture where the tombs of figures such as Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei and Niccolo Machiavelli are located.

Under the baton of conductor Anna Ungureanu, the ensemble offered a moment of genuine elevation, in which interpretative rigour blended with deep expressiveness, reaffirming the role of art as a universal language. The voices of the Romanian artists created an artistic experience that transcended the boundaries of sensibility, becoming a bridge between past and present.

“The concert, part of the broader programme of the Romania-Italy Cultural Year 2026, illustrated the strength of the relationship between the two countries – a relationship grounded in historical, cultural and human affinities, which continues to develop through dialogue, collaboration and mutual respect,” Romania’s Ambassador to Italy, Gabriela Dancau, wrote on Facebook.

During her visit to Florence, Gabriela Dancau also visited Villa Gamberaia, a landmark closely linked to Romania’s cultural history. Between 1896 and 1925, the villa belonged to Ioana Ghyka, who contributed to transforming it into a benchmark of European landscape architecture and a space for intellectual dialogue among the continent’s elites.

The series of cultural events organised under the banner “Romania-Italy Cultural Year 2026” also included an unusual premiere this month: the Madrigal Choir filmed inside the Pompeii Archaeological Site, in a project supported by the Romanian Embassy in Italy. The multimedia production, set to music by composer Sigismund Toduta, brings contemporary Romanian creation into dialogue with the heritage of antiquity at one of the world’s most important UNESCO sites.