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Mit - UVK_Sinfo_2008_08_št.12 - Index

s o C i e t y
SEMINAr OF SLOvENE LANGUAGE,
LItErAtUrE AND CULtUrE IN
LJUBLJANA
At the end of June in Ljubljana City Museum there was a ceremonial
opening of the pedagogically and promotionally most esteemed
seminar, the forty-fourth, of Slovene language, literature and
culture. For almost half a century the festival has been attracting
the most interested and enthusiastic supporters of Slovene
language and culture who live or work abroad. The Faculty of
Arts at the University of Ljubljana attracts mostly foreigners from
the field of Slavonic languages, especially Slovene, to the seminar
and presents them each year with the newest research in the
fields of Slovene language, literature and culture. Every year
approximately 130 people attend the seminar.
Two summer schools of Slovene language have also started. The
thurd youth school was attended by 87 students, whereas the
twenty-seventh summer school was attended by 145 people
from 45 countries. Both schools offer an additional programme,
including numerous lectures, excursions, film nights and cultural
activities.
FEStIvALS IN KLUŽE, BLED AND tHE
IMAGO SLOvENIAE FEStIvAL
Festivals are the most noted cultural activities in the summer, so
besides the Lent festival in Maribor and both festivals in Ljubljana
mentioned earlier, we should not forget to mention two younger,
but renowned festivals. These two in no way fall behind the city
festivals, and perhaps even excel in the beauty of the natural
environment where they take place. And in the same breath we
should not forget to mention the travelling project of classical
music performances called Imago Sloveniae, which brings old city
squares and other astonishingly beautiful areas around Slovenia
to life.
The international cultural festival at Kluže began in the old military
fort, near the source of the SoËa river, at the beginning of July,
with a musical-scenic recital, ‘Zlatorog’. Within a month and a
half many artists from Slovenia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Italy, France and Croatia will perform. The programme is very
generous and the visitors will be most pleased with the theatrical
part of the festival, promising the family thriller ‘Življenje v senci
bananovca’ (Life in the Shade of a Banana Tree) by Ivan VidiË,
directed by Cezaris Graužinis; the celebrated comedy ‘Moskva
− Petuški’ by Venedikt Jerofejev, directed by Marjan Bevk; the
melodrama ‘Tisti, ki jih reka spusti’ (Who the River Lets Go)
by David Rabet, directed by Mateja Koležnik; and the comic
monologue ‘CAB Ares, CAB Arei’ by Zijah SokoloviÊ. We should
also mention the musical ‘Greva se Ježka’ (Let’s Play Hedgehog)
directed by Tijana ZinajiÊ, the Italian musical comedy ‘Made in
Italy’, directed by Salvatoro Esposoto and Monica Zucon, and
a cabaret ‘Istrske štorijice’ (Stories from Istria) by Boris Senker,
directed by Robert Raponje.
Festival Bled is also growing fast − this year it offers 15 musical
events with 1000 musicians. The main events of the festival are
concerts by the gipsy group Langa, the pianist Amedeo Tomassi,
the De Santis/De bonfils duo on viola and organ, Per Sonare on
guitar and accordion, a choir from Pacific Lutheran University,
an orchestra from Linz, a symphony orchestra from Baltimore,
the Slovene author and singer Jani KovaËiË, and the Wladigeroff
brothers from Bulgaria. These are just some of the performers,
and we must also mention a special concert in memory of the
great composer Uroš Krek, who lived in Bled and who died last
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year. Traditionally, the Bled festival attracts around 4,000 or 5,000
visitors, which considering the serious content of the festival, is a
fine number. The organizers hope the festival achieves a quality
that would attract visitors to Bled for the festival itself.
One of more ambitious musical projects, ‘Imago Sloveniae’, is
celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The anniversary was
celebrated at the beginning of July with a special concert in front
of Ljubljana Cathedral, on PogaËar Square, with performances
by the, choir and orchestra and soloists of the Slovene National
Theatre, Opera and Ballet, Ljubljana. Two days later, a concert by
the Slovene Philharmonic orchestra concluded the celebrations.
More than 120 concerts are promoted as part of the Imago
Sloveniae project every year, and in two decades the audience,
attending more than 1000 concerts, has approached 100,000.
Of special importance is that the festival brings performers of
great quality to rural areas and small towns, increasing the quality
of cultural programmes and attracting audiences who otherwise
would never experience this kind of artistic expression.
PrEMIEr OF tHE ‘KALIGULA’, DIrECtED
By tOMAŽ PANDUr, ON BrIONI ISLAND
The Ulysses international theatre, based in Zagreb, is planning
two premieres this season - ‘Kaligula’ by Camus, directed by the
famous Slovene director Tomaž Pandur, and an adaptation of
Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Dušan JovanoviÊ, directed
by Lenka UdoviËki. The theatre opened its season with ‘Balade
Petrice Kerempuha’ by Krleža, directed by actor-director Rade
©erbedžija; then on 18th of July, at the former elite residence
of the Yugoslav leader President Tito on Brioni Island, the
performance of ‘Kaligula’ took place. As always, the premier of
the Ulysses theatre attracted numerous jet-set visitors, mainly
from Croatia and Slovenia, and some from Italy.
‘Kaligula’ is a co-production of the Gavella Theatre of Zagreb,
the Pandur Theatre and Budva City Theatre, with Ohrid Summer
and Austrian Mittelfest also participating. The performance
leaves a strong impression, because the Pandurian sets are
magnificent, even frightening, with an eminent scene, partially
submerged under water, where actors move, kill and drown as
personifications of Kaligula’s evil and bloodlust. The director
Pandur was pleased with the performance and with the actors,
who performed magnificently, and good reviews were heard
from most theatre aficionados.
SLOvENE tHEAtrES ON SUMMEr tOUr
ABrOAD
In the last decade, the summer habits of Slovene theatres
have changed significantly. Due to the greater recognition and
internationally acknowledged quality of Slovene theatres, what
used to be a time of vacations and gaining strength for the
new season is now a time of numerous appearances at festivals
abroad.
The central Slovene theatre, Drama SNG, opened the most
prestigious Macedonian festival, Ohrid Summer at the beginning
of July with a performance of Moliere’s ‘Tartuffe’, directed by
Dušan JovanoviÊ. On the 15th of July, the Slovene Youth Theatre
performed ‘Somrak bogov’ (Twilight of the Gods), directed
by Diego de Brea, at the Croatian National Theatre Split. The
Ljubljana City Theatre travelled all the way to Miami, Florida, with
the performance ‘Carmela and Paulino’, a variety show by the
Spanish author Jose Sanchis Sinisterre, directed by Mare Bulc.
They performed at the international theatre festival dedicated to
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