[concert/performance] Svetlana Makarovič & Mar Django Quartet - Sneguročka (Kino Šiška, Ljubljana)

Svetlana, a renowned Slovenian poet, performer and public figure, is not the youngest lady anymore, though still a lady of her own, poisonous yet fragile grace, demonstrating how age is really a completely vague and unimportant category. Which is in fact just the deadly combination to make her the best "interpreter" (if this is the right expression at all) of her own work. Such is the "storytelling" nature of her performing her own Sneguročka (a fairytale of the fairy winter maiden), her words being interrupted every now and then by the slavic songs of Mar Django Quartet in the gypsy-jazz mode. No big mise-en-scene, no special light concept,  no concept twists for their own sake, just the noble pathos of a bittersweet-tragic fairytale through the voice of Svetlana Makarovič in her comfortable armchair. And few can match her charisma on stage. Maybe, in my opinion and from what I can recollect, only Alim Qasimov for sure, yet in completely another circumstances and another conception. So, to sum up, a story is told and songs are sung inbetween, not differing much in emotion or rhythm, but that is just about all it takes on a good day to make a night to remember. Simplicity is a symbol of a bygone age, somehow, yet here it regains vital strengths in a way that only this performer can. The musical group, if I forgot to mention, stays elegantly in the background, supportive and 2nd place - nonetheless with big style.