*premiere performance

Performers: Simona Kočar and Matej Voušek
Visual image of the performance: Anjana Pavlič and Jaro Ješe

Cast:
Eos: Nuška Drašček, mezzo-soprano
Titon: Martin Sušnik, tenor

Chamber ensemble:
Matej Zupan, flute
Jože Kotar, clarinet
Janez Podlesek, violin
Igor Mitrović, cello
Marko Arh, horn
LucaFerrini, harpsichord
Franci Krevh, percussion

The score for the lyric opera for two voices and chamber ensemble Aurora and the Cricket sets to music the text by the well-known Slovene poet Milan Dekleva, and was composed by Pavel Mihelčič, the acclaimed Slovene composer, essayist, music critic and professor emeritus of the Ljubljana Academy of Music. Aurora and the Cricket is based on a story from Greek mythology that tells of the love of the goddess Eos for Tithonus, a prince of Troy, and poetically addresses the eternal questions of immortality and transience, while commenting allegorically on the origin and titanic power of music. The music of the opera is subtle, as though aiming to clarify the space in which sound alternately grows denser and attenuates. Eos, the divine personification of the dawn, is characterised by an imperious horn, sometimes solo, that approaches the mezzo-soprano of the goddess. The tiny sound of the flute or piccolo reflects the dwindling tenor, Tithonus, who can barely make himself heard against the confident female voice. Although she seems to dominate the male personality, he admires the femininity in her. The music is the guide to the events, frequently wrapped in fiery eroticism but sometimes tender and delicately melodious. In the sky there is Aurora – a symbol of longing, reality, divinity. Down on earth remains the man, Tithonus, once strong and vigorous but now growing old. Aurora sincerely loves and admires him, but all that is left to the withered old man is the fate of a tiny, dried-up cricket, the only thing the goddess can afford him.