Ana Sokolović’s production can be seen this Saturday (19th) at Espacio La Granja
This Saturday, 19 September, Espacio La Granja will host Svadba (The Wedding), an opera composed in 2010 by Ana Sokolović. Beginning at 7.00 p.m., the performance forms part of the Ópera en minúscula programme and takes audiences on a virtuosic musical journey performed by six a cappella singers.
The production forms part of the Ópera de Tenerife pre-season, an initiative of the Tenerife Island Council through Auditorio de Tenerife, sponsored by the Canary Islands Institute for Cultural Development of the Government of the Canary Islands and Spain’s National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM). This third edition of Ópera en minúscula also benefits from the collaboration of La Laguna City Council.
Sung in Serbian, Svadba unfolds on the night before a wedding, as the bride spends the evening celebrating with her closest friends. Together, they invoke pagan rituals as they celebrate their last night before their friend’s marriage and prepare her for the ceremony. The singers combine operatic performance with Balkan folk vocal techniques, encompassing subtle vocal inflections, extreme chest voice, high nasal registers, whispers and rhythmic patterns to create a rich palette of vocal colours and onomatopoeic sounds.
Svadba, the Serbian word for ‘wedding’, poetically explores the traditions and rituals surrounding the night before the ceremony. Milica, the bride, prepares for the big day with her five friends, moving through a range of emotions—from excitement to nervousness—as they decorate, dance, play games and sing. The ancestors watch over the proceedings, appearing through rituals and dreams and communicating across time, bringing the contemporary and ancestral worlds into dialogue. The opera’s seven scenes unfold on a beach beside the Atlantic Ocean, where the water, sky, sand, flowers and creatures become part of both the physical and spiritual landscape.
The women reflect on the dual nature of the wedding: the end of one stage of life and the beginning of another. Milica and her bridesmaids carry wildflowers. Lena, the older woman, begins preparing coloured henna with which to dye Milica’s hair, marking her rite of passage. Later, Milica reflects by the shore and drifts into a dream, entering a fantasy world with her fiancé. Tensions mount as the boundary between role-play and confrontation begins to blur. Milica’s friends enact a battle of gender roles through a game of questions and answers, while Ljubica, one of the bridesmaids, begins to feel jealous of Milica.
Ana Sokolović has established an international reputation for her rhythmically vibrant and imaginative music, with a repertoire ranging from critically acclaimed operas and orchestral works to solo and chamber music. Born in Serbia, Sokolović immersed herself in the arts from an early age, beginning with classical ballet before turning to music and theatre. Her fascination with different art forms can be seen throughout her wide-ranging body of stage and concert works and has led to notable collaborations with choreographers, dancers, playwrights and filmmakers. Her four operas have been staged internationally, including at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, while Svadba received the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Musical/Opera.
Tickets are priced at €10 and can be purchased on the Auditorio de Tenerife website www.auditoriodetenerife.com, at the box office from Monday to Friday, 10.00 a.m.–5.00 p.m., and on Saturdays, 10.00 a.m.–2.00 p.m., or by telephone on 902 317 327 during the same opening hours. Tickets will also be available from the Espacio La Granja box office from one hour before the performance. Discounts are available for students, jobseekers and large families.