CHILDREN’S ROOM – opera for children
The Youth Ballet Company will perform for the first time as part of the 53rd BEMUS – on Friday, November 12th, at the Duško Radović Small Theater in the children’s opera Children’s Room under the direction of Milan Nedeljković, composer Milenko Živković, based on Desanka Maksimović’s text, choreographed by Doc. Mila Stijak and Ana Bošković, starting at 8 p.m. The first replay is scheduled for November 13th.
The Children’s Room is composed based on the short story of the same name by our poet Desanka Maksimović and represents not only the first steps of our compositional practice aimed at the youngest audience of the fourth decade of the twentieth century in Serbia, but also a real pearl of Milenko Živković’s opus and our cultural heritage. This unique work, the work of two great Serbian artists, is an indicator of advanced thinking and the level of development of the Serbian art scene, which in the first half of the twentieth century kept pace with the most modern artistic trends in Europe.
This year marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Milenko Živković, whose significance and work have been unjustly neglected in our environment, and at the 53rd BEMUS with the performance of the Children’s Room, we will be reminded of his immeasurable contribution to music and performing arts in Serbia.
The idea for the reconstruction and performance of this work came from the project Opera: Past, Present, Perfect! in the production of the Music Opera and Theater Organization MOTO and the Small Theater Duško Radović under the auspices of Creative Europe.
Directed by Natalija Stanković and Mateja Đedović under the mentorship of Boris Liješević. In addition to members of the Youth Ballet Company, the main roles are played by Biljana Jovanović (mother), Boris Papak (father), Oliver Krivokuć (first child), Isidora Bogdanović (second child), Sara Ristić (third child), Mina Nikolić (fourth child), Children’s Cultural center Belgrade, conductor Snežana Despotović, soloists of the Music School Vojislav Vučković the class of prof. Maja Đokić, orchestra students of the Opera: Past, Present, Perfect project! and professional musicians.
The opera for children was performed for the first time on February 20th and 26nd, in 1941.
