[theatre/dance/performance] Matjaž Farič - The Politics of Dancing (PTL Ljubljana)

The crown sequence of this mostly contemporary dance performance must surely be the one where three young dancers, one male and two female, enchantingly disintegrate a part of a classical music history - Invitation to Valse by the robust and noble romantic Carl Maria von Weber. There they follow the movement accuracy and freshness which is somewhat characteristic for Farič's choreography work in general, yet they immerse themselves into the action so deeply that it makes the main concept of the performance shine out in an irrational and organic way. Some other conceptual aspects of the performance seem to be a little less inspiring and more illustrational, the choreographic work, however, is clearly seen and very well executed.

[multiple activities] - Ljubljana, Metz, Mulhouse

[theatre/opera] Peter Brook and W. A. Mozart - The Magic Flute (Cankarjev dom, Linhart Hall)
Performed in Ljubljana by a France-based smaller opera company, it was my first live insight into a part of theatre history, represented by the name and the opus of Peter Brook. And it was more or less what I had expected, partially following the tradition of ancient aoidos (ἀοιδός) or rhapsodos (ῥαψῳδός), simplifying some parts and making a very natural, non-abundant communication with the audience work; on the other hand there was made visible the usage of "empty space" directing, as described in Brook's most epochal works and as performed in most of his creations. A very interesting performance, if indeed somewhat rigid and dull at certain times - yet concisely following its own logic at all times.

[theatre] Oedipe Tyran - Opera Theatre Metz
An epical theatre work of mostly anachronistic visual and acting poetry, directed by a French director working with the actors from Saratov, Russia. A very unsatisfying and vague performance alltogether, quite remarkably bad casting of certain roles, yet some very small eye-candies or well spoken monologues and especially a very intriguing (if it would not have the whole performance as its predecessor) last scene, in which some kids are representing an allegory of irrationality and chaos still made it at least a little worth the time.

[restaurant] Le Touareg - Mulhouse
A new and probably never again used cathegory - this restaurant in this small town in Alsace (France) was a very special treat. The elderly man was a the same time the waiter and the only cook and cashier and everything in the restaurant, yet he managed to cook very delicious Moroccan food for six people (who did not eat small amounts of food) in a very manageable time and be very witty at the same time. My sincere virtual thanks to him for a surprisingly refreshing evening.

[movie] Leos Carax - Holy Motors (Kinodvor)
An inspiring movie which has a strong potential of elegantly detaching yourself from the real world, yet not in a completely abstract, but schizophrenic and softly daunting, even pensative mood, however intense the scenes may be, they are never befallen by the rash tempo of cheap surprise or shock. Denis Lavant is a master of invisible transitions between different characters, yet the movie's biggest forte is probably the intelligent comedy it brings to its otherwise unconventional short cuts, scenes, flashes and twists in perception. It is a joyous cinephile movie with an interesting and philosophical contact to our global reality - not in a proclamatory way.

[movie] Valérie Donzelli - La guerre est déclarée (Kinodvor)

It is a life-powers replenishing insight into a story of two young parents, confronted with the reality of their newborn son having a complex and persistent brain-tumor. A story that could not be told with so much vigour, wit or humorous shifts of moods, probably, if it had not been also partially a true story of the main two characters. While she (playing Juliette) is also the director and co-screenwright of the movie, he (playing Romeo) is a soundtrack selection assistant, the young boy Gabriel (the two actors' real son) is the inspiration for this movie, shown in the movie as Adam at 8 years of age (before that there is another child, aged around 2-3). But the real power of this movie sticks more in the fact that Weltvertrauen (as some holocaust survivors would have said), the strength of trust, belief, vital forces and, above all, taking things with a piece of joyful irony and distance, can solve even such an improbable and tragic fate. Being young, powerful and absolutely in love and then giving birth to a "defect" child could mean that god has played his worst cards, yet we are still playing. As for the philosophical point of view - kids like Gabriel would simply die in a few short years after birth without modern medicine, so all the struggles would have actually not been there, the story would not be plausible by any chance; and the music, of course, is another of the worse points of the movie, being too abundant in filling the scenes, but also being too illustrative or hyper-emotional-classic. Apart from that, the story bears enough metaphorical diversions to make you wonder some basic questions of family life or relationships between human beings completely anew - and not merely painfully, I must add.

[theatre] Vinko Möderndorfer - Vaje za tesnobo (Rehearsals for anxiety)

The Trieste Stable Theatre (SSG Trst in Slovene) opened its last season with this critically acclaimed work by a prolifc Slovenian plawright Vinko Möderndorfer. Möderndorfer is chiefly interested in hyper-naturalism, semi-sarcasm and social awareness topics in his plays, mainly staying in the realm of the figurative, not delving into the abstract - that he does not do even in his movies, where he acts as the director, or whenever he directs in theatre. Why am I saying this? Because his latest play is focused on the social-monetary crisis and with it the crisis of values with which we are fighting these past few years, if not for an entire century or at least since the last world war. The good point of the performance are the actors, at least some of them, who are making one hell of an effort to breathe life (and not stereotype-infused rhetorics with only a few good shots at being funny and critical at the same time) into their lines. In general the text lacks a more intelligent approach to the topic, because as it tackles the problems of unemployment, family abuse, hierarchical struggle in the rough capitalist world, false ideologies of wealth and beauty and so on and so forth - it does that in a very straightforward way, making no more than our heads nod and respond: "Yes, it's true. What on Earth are we going to do about it?" For my eyes, the whole, not even the efforts of the performance itself, does not reach beyond the point of exposing the problems which are crucial, yet spoken about in that more or less similar manner over and over again. The male part of the acting crew puts much better effort to the performance, but that is also due to female parts being written far less complex in the first place - which I think is symptomatic for a lot of Möderndorfer's theatre work. Maybe that chauvinism is purely coincidental, since classical theatre is still a little bit of a male domain in the sense of role availability ...

I think the play would need more work from the director, the young Jaka Andrej Vojevec, maybe in that same or similar manner, because it really should upgrade the text and its (mostly) too plain approach to the topic, to be completely frank.

[concert/performance] Svetlana Makarovič and Zvezdana Novaković - Lovec na ljudi (The Manhunter)

The young instrumentalist and, above all, a vocal experimentator and profound singer, Zvezdana Novaković, was here more than a worthy counterpart to Svetlana Makarovič and her unrivaled interpretation skills. The performance hall was, alas, too small to comfortably host many times too much people - and thus Svetlana did not have the space necessary on stage to gain a proper mystic distance to the crowd and her energy was somehow abolished or at least diminished. Luckily, her poems were intertwined by (but not in a way of background music, but as solo parts inbetween) Zvezdana's harp playing and singing of various ethnic or performative origins - from Bulgarian folk singing to almost experimental voice metal. Her energy on stage is fresh, vibrantly positive, yet very sharp and self-confident, which was a very intriguing company for Svetlana's eerie poetry of vile hallucinations and allegories of death. Hopefully on the next repeat performances they will give her enough space so she would be able to (at least) breathe, because this obvious energy-stopper of the closest spectators almost ruined the performance alltogether.

[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.

[concert] Grigorij Sokolov - Schubert, Beethoven (Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana)

Grigorij Sokolov has been playing profoundly devoted, as one is almost used to expect of him, just that there had been one minor flaw to his performance. And it has, paradoxically, made his concert even better and an even more invigorating experience to come across. First part of the concert were the Schubert pieces, not excessively emotional, not excessively mathematical or in any way hitting the popular approaches, just pure joy of playing, yet restrained in a special way. At the very beginning of the second part, a string in the piano (around H2, C3), broke, and the effects of this misbegotten incident were to be heard throughout the "Hammerklavier Sonate" by Beethoven. A bit of irony, regarding the title of the composition, on the other hand, the sublime playing of Sokolov made mechanical imperfection seem like a distant, obscure detail.

P.S.: Evgeny Kissin, the only musician to have (allegedly) made the grand maestro von Karajan shed a tear (and not even being of legal age at that time), is on his way to Ljubljana in September. Again, Schubert, and Scriabin. Much remains to be seen this year, obviously. If they could just get those strings to be in shape until then ...