Enescu didn't just use the melodic, he defended the melodic.
There was an interesting dance/theatre piece at the opera house there last year about the Romanians in Paris at the turn of the last century. Very intriguing. When their classical theatre was shaping itself in the 19th c., all of the actors trained in Paris (and brought the French translations of Shakespeare with them), and much of the machinery came from Germany. (Also the source for many technical innovations in the UK.) Culture moves from place to place. The culture of a single place is simply a ritual. It becomes a culture when it starts to bear relation to other worlds.
One of the memorable things about my hike through the mountains around Sibiu (aside from the large, angry shepherd dogs) was coming down the mountain and finding myself in Cioran's hometown. Had been reading his stuff for a few months. The more controversial ones are impossible to find in translation, even in the largest research libraries there.
