Middle-aged Aurelia falls in love with Ken, the family’s English tutor young enough to be her son, who returns her affections. A further bond develops between them through their long period of mourning (ten years ago, Aurelia's husband died, and Ken lost his mother). Aurelia feels born again but just as her self-abandonment reaches its climax, is told that she's terminally ill and has only a few weeks left to live... 

In his 1953 novel, The Deceived Woman, Thomas Mann depicted a paradoxical situation wrapped up in an alarming dialectic of life and death. Librettist Händl Klaus and composer Vito Žuraj call their opera in seven scenes Blühen, intensifying the idea even further, focussing on the protagonist, Aurelia. Her relationship with her daughter Anna is even more ambivalent, with communication between the two women mirroring their own fears and insecurities. 

Commissioned by the Frankfurt Opera, Blühen received its premiere in January 2023, enchanting the audiences and scoring glowing critical reviews. The work was named “World Premiere of the Year 2023” by the Opernwelt magazine!

 

The normal life of a theatre show can usually be counted on the fingers of one hand. If counting on three fingers, we’ve got a success story; if on all five, it’s a sensation. Extremely rare are the performances that count their years on the fingers of both hands. These are legendary shows. There are hardly any performances that need a third set of fingers to count on. These are solitary exceptions, monoliths that defy time and at the same time attest to the indestructible power of theatre, which is otherwise subject to transience. And that is why such a monolith, transcending the theatrical life of all ten fingers, is particularly worthy of attention.

Piaf, Edith Piaf is such a monolith. Twenty, yes, twenty years have passed since its premiere at Kavarna Union, on the ideal, but sadly no longer operational stage of perhaps the finest cabaret venue in Ljubljana. Anyway, what happened that December evening in Kavarna was by no means meant to survive, alive and kicking, over a span of two decades. Non-existent budget, but boundless enthusiasm, a young creative team at the beginning of their theatrical journey, not enough time, too much work and the determination to see the project through, no matter what form it would end up taking. It has evolved into a form with no superfluous detail, in which nothing gets “stale”, none of Vesna's gestures has “gathered dust”, everything in its place, clear, pure, direct, emotionally charged, powerful.

The success of Vesna's vocal-theatrical take on Edith Piaf – still with musical accompaniment by (also appearing as an actor!) Joži Šalej – was certain at the premiere, and later confirmed by the Borštnik Award for Best Actress, by numerous tours and the 20th anniversary of the production.
And it will be confirmed by the anniversary show in Cankarjev dom's Linhart Hall.

Nobody could fail to notice her.
Nobody could imitate her.
Nobody can forget her.
Her name was Edith Piaf.

It seems the icon of Edith Piaf has lodged itself firmly in people’s consciousness: a gentle, fragile girl who rose from street singer to soul-stirring chanteuse. Nobody could have sung as beautifully and uniquely as Edith without not only having glimpsed but also tasted the dark side of life. The saying “only those who have endured hell can speak of paradise” undeniably applies to Edith.

The production was selected to compete in the 2004 Maribor Theatre Festival (Borštnikovo srečanje), where award-winning Vesna Pernarčič received the Best Actor Prize.

Vesna Pernarčič

Vesna first began performing professionally in her third year at the Ljubljana Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television as Mirandolina in P. Turrini’s Die Wirtin directed by Samo Strelec (ZATO Theatre, Ptuj). After graduation, she joined the acting ensemble of the Slovenian Permanent Theatre in Trieste. After three years, she became member of the Prešeren Theatre Kranj, where her first role was that of Micka in Županova Micka (The Mayor’s Daughter) directed by V. Taufer. She is currently member of the Prešeren Theatre Kranj.

Selected awards: žlahtna komedijantka (awarded to actors in Slovenian comedy, 2019, 2012, 2007, 2005), Best Actor Award at the Maribor Theatre Festival (2018, 2004), Prešeren Fund Award (2014)

This exciting and in many ways provocative production is based on Ödön von Horváth’s novel Youth Without God and Franco “Bifo” Berardi’s sociological study Heroes: Mass Murder and Suicide. 

The novel shows a group of boys who experience catharsis on a school trip, when one of them gets killed in a game of power. One of Berardi’s heroes, in turn, the 18-year-old Eric Harris, turns Von Horváth’s imaginary trip into an ultimate version of the Doom video game, in which the weak end up under the feet of the strong. 

Both patterns emerge from fiction to become reality. The first led to a bloody war in the first half of the 20th century. The second led to the Columbine High School massacre. 

Age group: 16+

Hortus Conclusus is a garden genre, an enclosed space divided into quadrants. The enclosure is simple: a wall or decorative wall or a woven wool fence. It acts as a curtain, like a veil that covers the nakedness of the body (Dominique Clévenot writes about the aesthetics of the veil) or perhaps a theatre curtain, an interspace that both separates and joins two key paradigms of stage art. Architect and architectural theorist Gottfried Semper, in his Theory of Dressing (Bekleidungstheorie), identifies fabric as the primal form of art and states that construction began with draping structures in fabric. Tents are depicted in the stone reliefs of ancient cultures, showing the aberrations of their shapes in response to various weather conditions.

Allegories Trilogy, 2022–2025 

The trilogy Allegories, 2022–2025, consisting of three dance projects and a synthesis performance, is being developed in the period from 2022 to 2025. The subject of the three-part project is allegories – the prism of time in the framework of iconographic paths woven by poetry, literature and fine arts. 

The programme of the Muzeum Institute is conceived as a series of platforms, that is, trilogies, which overlap and supplement its contents over several years: the Dynamics of Space in Art trilogy, 2016–2019 was focused on the phenomena of spatial dynamics as the changing surroundings in which the body resides; the Sleep trilogy, 2019–2021, stemmed from the abundant iconography of depictions from sleep in relation between vigilance and dreams. 

The first part of the trilogy Allegories, the dance performance Allegories of Months – Attributes, 2022, is based on the motif of monthly cycles with attributes that encompass the life of nature (flora) in the context of the tension between tasks and the sensory and emotional impulses to which life gives rise. 

The second part of the trilogy, Allegories – Fragments, is a performance focusing on the physicality and visuality of dance language through the specifics of nature and the rhythm of work, as a rhythm determined by astral forces (Ovid, Verij, Flak …). This triptych was explored in the genre embodiments from historical cycles in literary and visual arts paradigms from Antiquity to the Renaissance. The third part of the trilogy, a dance-theatre performance entitled Hortus Conclusus – Garden, 2024, will traverse the relationships between the external appearance of phenomena and cosmological compositions based on the principles of the natural elements (winds, rivers, moons, Zodiac constellations) and the mathematical systematisation of calendars and encyclopedias. The trilogy Allegories will conclude with the performance, The Offering, 2025, which will reference the liturgy of celebration and the theme of the splendid image of moons and other natural personifications marked by festivals and rituals.

Muzeum 30 Years
As part of Muzeum Theatre’s 30th-anniversary celebration, Muzeum Institute, in collaboration with SLOGI – Slovenian Theatre Institute and Cankarjev dom, is organising a discussion that will follow the première of the performance Hortus Conclusus directed by Barbara Novakovič on 9 September 2024, in Linhart Hall.

Participants will include Blaž Lukan, Tomaž Toporišič, Jana Pavlič, Marijan Rupert and other co-creators of Muzeum Theatre and the publication scheduled for release by SLOGI in the spring of 2025. 
Primož Jesenko will moderate the discussion.

Barbara NOVAKOVIČ (1963, Celje) is a stage director, producer and curator, as well as the founder and director of the Muzeum Institute Ljubljana. She studied art history and the sociology of culture at the Faculty of Arts, University of  Ljubljana, and enrolled at the University of Ljubljana, Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (UL AGRFT), where she graduated in stage acting in 1993. In the same year, she founded the Muzeum Theatre and decided to work as a freelance author and producer. She conceived and directed a number of stage performances and also curated a few innovative international exhibitions. She has produced numerous first creations for the stage by authors stemming from other fields of creation (architecture, visual arts, dance, film, theory). In her projects, she occasionally functions also as a performer or a stage designer.

The setting is the dress rehearsal for Euripides's play. It is also the day of Nádia’s testimony in court, along with other mothers, in a case she has brought against the State regarding the abuse of her son and other children. In a single day, we witness a Greek tragedy in its dress rehearsal. However, it is increasingly difficult for Nádia to play the role of Hecuba, as she is confusing Euripides' words with those she has to say in court. Rehearsing the role of Hecuba, Nádia realises that she is rehearsing her own testimony. The rehearsal period of the play overlaps ambiguously with that of a judicial investigation. Euripides’s characters start encroaching on Nádia’s daily life. Agamemnon, whom Hecuba stands up to in a plead to grant her the right to avenge herself on Polymestor, becomes the judge, and Nádia presents her case, pleading to be allowed to punish those responsible for the mistreatment of her son. The silence of the politicians, who have tried to sweep the public scandal and the legal battle under the carpet, merges with the dilemma of Ulysses, who owed Hecuba friendship and assistance, but was forced to have a hand in her tragedy under martial law...

Except for the actress playing Nádia as Hecuba, each actor plays at least two characters: one in the context of the rehearsal of Euripides's play and the other in the context of the judicial investigation into the abuse of Nádia's son. The chorus, composed of the entire cast (except for the actress playing Nádia), plays the role of the narrator, witnessing the two intertwined worlds while offering a glimpse into the universal tensions that blur the boundaries between these two realities.

Tiago Rodrigues (1977, Lisbon) is a Portuguese theatre director, playwright and actor. He graduated in theatre directing from the Lisbon Theatre and Film School (ESTC). Rodrigues gained renown for his directorial technique that blends elements of classical and contemporary drama, deliberately subverting and transcending the established boundaries of theatrical conventions. He is a co-founder and artistic director of the theatre company Mundo Perfeito. From 2015 to 2018 he was the artistic director of Teatro Nacional D. Maria II in Lisbon. 

The crucial factor in his creative development was the 1997 collaboration with the Belgian group tgSTAN, known for establishing specific relationships based on the absence of hierarchy. During his years with the group, Rodrigues developed his acting skills, began actively pursuing playwriting and evolved the principles of collective theatre. He began writing scripts, essays, poems, also devoting himself to directing. In 2003, Rodrigues and Magda Bizarro founded Mundo Perfeito, a troupe without a permanent base, with which he toured extensively in Portugal and Europe. Whether combining documentary stories with fiction, or drama classics with contemporary literature, Tiago Rodrigues' theatre is deeply rooted in the idea of writing for and with actors, seeking to poetically transform reality using theatrical tools.

In 2021, Rodrigues was appointed Artistic Director of the Festival d'Avignon. His four-year term began in 2022.

Pianist and producer: Alexandra Dariescu
Directed by: Nick Hillel
Art director and director of animation: Adam Smith
Choreographer: Jenna Lee
Ballerina: Imogen-Lily Ash
Video design produced by: Yeast Culture
 

Experience the classic Christmas story in a different way: a multimedia performance that brings together a world-class pianist, a ballerina and state-of-the-art digital animations projected onto a see-through gauze screen to recreate the magical world of the Mouse King.

The astonishing digital animations, hand-drawn especially for the show and merging beautifully with the delightful piano solo, take us on a fantastical journey into a world populated by ballet, music, theatre and film. The audience becomes part of the story unfolding before their eyes, giving a new spin to the eternal and much-loved fairy tale. The Nutcracker like it’s never been told before.  

Since its premiere in 2017, the show has enchanted audiences of all ages, reaching more than 70,000 people worldwide, in venues that include Wiener Konzerthaus, the Verbier Festival, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Melbourne Recital Hall, the Shanghai Grand Theatre and the Dubai Opera House. It has also received glowing reviews from the critics.

The show's creator, pianist Alexandra Dariescu, is a sought-after artist and regular soloist with prestigious orchestras, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Her discography includes eight albums, most recently with soprano Angela Gheorghiu on Decca.

Writer and director: Ema Kugler
Directors of photography: Lev Predan Kowarski, Dejan Ulaga
Music: Robert Jiša
Sound design: Boštjan Kačičnik
Editing: Ema Kugler
Chief animator: Matej Lavrenčič 
Cast: Ivan Peternelj, Aino Aalto, Matija Vastl, Blaž Šef, Klemen Kovačič, Kristjan Guček, Zdravko Duša, Sebastjan Starič, Dušan Teropšič
Voices: Ivan Peternelj, Romana Šalehar, Andrej Rozman - Roza, Janez Škof, Ivo Barišič 
Production: Zavod ZANK 
Distribution: DEMIURG

The film tells the story of pre-Christian beliefs in Slovenia’s Posočje region, the origins of which are uncertain. The only documented piece of information reveals that in 1331, the new religion (Christianity) was brought from Cividale del Friuli (Čedad), thus ushering in a long era of extremely violent Christianisation in Posočje.

The old pagan temples were destroyed, the believers persecuted, and many killed. In consequence, the old faith practitioners took a vow of silence, and the faith was passed down from generation to generation only through oral tradition.

When Pavel Medvešček began collecting this oral tradition, it took him a long time to gain the trust of strici (uncles)*, who considered him a forešt and – as he was told – “not one of us”, even though he lived locally. 

Medvešček collected the oral tradition between 1953 and 1975, which means that until that time the belief had been kept alive and practised in complete secrecy. Nobody knows whether the faith is still practised today. The film is based on the book Iz nevidne strani neba, published by Pavel Medvešček in 2015.

The performance "Life" is viewed through the character of a writer searching for herself in today's fast-paced, fragmented, and fleeting world. In her desire to create something lasting, she begins to write the first chapters of a book: The Joy of Creation, Under the Open Sky, and Encounter. However, she loses her inspiration, the meaning of writing, and consequently, herself. She finds herself in a deep crisis, unable to see a way out of the darkness.

The hope and strength to start anew come from children, whose sincerity brings light into her life like a light at the end of the tunnel. She decides to set aside all external distractions, discards what she has already written, and begins to write her own life story. She builds it like an arch spanning three generations: from the light of childhood, through the storms of adolescence, to the harmony of adulthood.

Moj živòt je ROKentROL (My Life is ROKentROL) is a fresh, contemporary theatrical event about the life metamorphosis of the rock generation. The story is an unconventional reflection, reckoning, and summary of an individual's life before entering the "mature" phase, while holding an unrelenting mirror of reality to society, the world, and, above all, to oneself, with the help of humor, comedy, and self-irony.

In the performance, Gojmir Lešnjak transforms into the rock singer Gojc and performs thirteen original songs. The rock concert atmosphere is repeatedly interrupted by various intruders: a janitor, a journalist, a salesman, a businessman (all portrayed on stage by Jaša Jamnik), who get entangled in various misunderstandings and conflicts with all the performers.

All the songs, which originate from a diverse palette of rock music styles, including blues, country, pop, reggae, swing, rap, and funk, are performed live by the band of seasoned musicians, VIS d’Dohtars, comprising guitar virtuoso Robert Pikl, the exceptional Jože Hauko on bass, the impactful Peter Ogrinc on drums, and the brilliant keyboardist and musical director Miran Juvan.

Aljoša will mark the release of his new book Ne! je moč (No! Is Power) with another one of his talents. As a sold-out lecturer and inspiring motivator, his new talk "No! is Power" will offer a fresh motivational treat for all those who wish to bring more stability, joy, and above all, solid, healthy boundaries into their lives. Don’t miss the unique opportunity to get your hands on the new book while enjoying an unforgettable gathering with friends at Cankarjev dom, where the event will also feature a discussion with the author and a book signing.

Aljoša Bagola is a creative mastermind and a pioneer of bestsellers in our country. As Slovenia's Creative Director of the Decade, he withdrew from the advertising world following a severe burnout and redirected his love for creativity into writing books. His debut, How to Burn Out and Take Life into Your Own Hands, captivated readers and became the best-selling book of 2020 in Slovenia. His second book, Happiness, Please, climbed to second place on the best-sellers list two years later. Together, both books have nearly ten reprints and are also bestsellers in Croatia. Aljoša has been awarded the title of Fatal Man for his contribution to raising awareness about the importance of mental health and has been chosen as the ambassador for the first national anti-stigmatization campaign for mental health by NIJZ.