A. Sokolović:  SVADBA (WEDDING)

Sébastien Boin, conductor
Ted Huffman, Zack Winokur, stage directors
Samal Blak, set and costume design
Marcus Doshi, lighting designer
Raphaël Simon, percussion

Main Cast:

Florie Valiquette, Liesbeth Devos, Lena Beate Mordal, Pauline Sikirdji, Nada Anna Destraël, Mireille Lebel

Original production: Dáirine Ní Mheadhra & John Hess, Queen of Puddings Music Theatre (Toronto), 2011
New production: Académie et Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, 2015

Svadba-Wedding is a chamber opera in the Serbian language for six female voices a cappella and occasional percussion accompaniment, with music and libretto by the Serbian-born, Montreal-based composer Ana Sokolović. The action is set on the evening before the wedding of Milica, a young woman who is celebrating her impending marriage with her friends. They dance, argue, make fun of boys, go swimming and eventually say farewell. Throughout this hen night, they burst into songs which possess the husky spontaneity and the rough charm of folklore verse but are transfigured by the imaginative writing of Ana Sokolović. The work received its premiere in Toronto in 2011 and since 2015 has been travelling around European festivals in a new production created for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. This is its first performance in Slovenia.

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