MUSIC THEATRE NOW award
THRENOS (for the Throat) awarded
The Carmina Slovenica production THRENOS (for the Throat), by composer Jacob Cooper, directed by Karmina Šilec, received the prestigious international award Music Theatre NOW.
Music Theatre NOW is the premier competition for first productions of new works, which have been professionally created anywhere in the world. Since 2008 more than 1000 world premieres of new opera and music theatre have entered the competition to take part in this unique convention that brings together practitioners and presenters from across the globe.
Threnos, performed by Choregie- New Music Theatre, was premiered in Slovenia in March 2020. Apart from the composer Jacob Cooper and stage and music director Karmina Šilec, the project was designed by an international artistic team composed of poet Dora Malech, set designer Dorian Šilec Petek, author of drawings and videos Young Joo Lee, artistic collaborator Sidra Bell, costume designer Tina Bonča, lighting designer Andrej Hajdinjak. The music for the 16 processed voices and electronics was sound designed by Danilo Ženko, video projection designed by Grega Tanacek. Threnoswas created in co-production with the Maribor Puppet Theatre.
Threnos brings to the stage that which is so often hidden behind the scenes in a performance that offers space for reckoning and reflection. Slaughterhouses are a place where man, machine and animal meet. Through this connection Threnosis questioning the contemporary social paradigm in which man, by excessive praising of his own culture, almost completely destroys nature.
Former winners have staged their works at various festivals around the globe, such as Operadagen (Rotterdam), Prototype Festival (New York) or Shanghai International Contemporary Theatre Festival ACT. The presentation of Threnosin front of presenters, publishers and festival makers, will be at the Music Theatre NOW meeting in Rotterdam in May 2020, during the O. Festival.
This is Karmina Šilec's second MTN award, the first being the performance From time immemorial…in the category Music Beyond Opera, produced by the Slovene National Theater Maribor (2008).This year's Music Theatre NOW award is an addition to the set of recognitions to Karmina Šilec for her work in the field of new music theatre; among them the Russian Golden Mask, the nomination for the Europe Theater Prize Theatrical Realities (EPTR), the Prešeren Fund Award, and others.
…Threnos (for the Throat) is a masterly example of exciting music theatre, brimming with surreal moments, deeply emotive and gripping." (ARTS TALK MAGAZINE, NL, 2020)
... the projectsin the production of CS keep amazing us with their attunement with the topical issues, often anticipating certain themes which we later bring to life in reality. ... (Večer, 2020)
… The industrialization of death manifests itself in the play with repetitiveness, mechanics, laboratory sterility, minimalism ... and this applies to music as well as to choreography, costume design and set design. (Delo, 2020)
... The performers, musicians with their presence and execuition once again showed the polyvalence of their talents and abilities ... (Večer, 2020)
…Threnos once again reminded us of the excellence of the Carmina Slovenica, and of its exploring of all the boundaries of music and the stage. The exciting meta-composition and suggestive execution functioned powerfully and convincingly in all its elements. ... (Večer, 2000)
… it is a questioning of the contemporary social paradigm in which man, by excessive praising of his own culture, almost completely destroys nature. This further leads to the reflection of how nature can nevertheless survive, perhaps even without man, and whether, as a consequence, this human-machine relationship can bring us a different view of the man-animal relationship. This human-machine-animal triangle is, in the extreme, interfering with human issues and placing them as some naked lawless bodies in the global processes of control and killing. This also guided the staging that leans on these spaces. The sonic processing of the human voice represents this aspect of the "machine" and is reminiscent of the fragility and vulnerability of the human and animal voice, as well as of some kind of expansion of life, or of the living as a whole …Delo, 2020)
CARMINA SLOVENICA DIGITAL
Threnos (for the Throat)
DVD
THRENOS now avaible also on DVD
Composer / concept: Jacob Cooper (USA)
Direction / concept: Karmina Šilec (SI)
Texts: Dora Malech (USA)
Video: Young Joo Lee (KR, USA)
Artistic collaborator: Sidra Bell (USA)
Set: Dorian Šilec Petek (SI)
Costumes: Tina Bonča (SI)
Light: Andrej Hajdinjak (SI)
Sound: Danilo Ženko (SI)
camera&editing: Rudi Uran (SI)
European Cultural Capital Novi Sad
choir laboratory
From Choir in Movement to Choral Theatre
lecture by Karmina Šilec: Choregie concept
26.4.2022 at 16.00
Organiser: Serbian Choral Association of Sombor
Partners: Carmina Slovenica (Slovenia), COOLIST Foundation
location: Music school Isidor Bajić