Hochzeit (Svadba)

A wedding is one of the most beautiful and most magnificent occasions concocted by mankind. In a traditional culture it is a rite of passage that celebrates the recasting of the woman’s role within the family. Involved are worries about setting up a new household, the sorrow of taking leave of parents and friends, the angst about having a new family and new responsibilities. These situations have been described and dealt with in innumerable folk songs. Inspired by the folk songs and choral music of her Serbian homeland, the Serbian Canadian composer Ana Sokolović wrote in 2011 an opera for six women’s voices that has to do with the preparations for a wedding. The bride – Milica – spends time with her friends and together they dance, play, tell jokes, argue, grow weary, then dance again. What Milica goes through is a kind of universal transformative experience and this opera is a snapshot of this elemental life circumstance. From everyday objects and everyday chatter, the composer conjures up true theater magic. Without orchestral accompaniment – only with a few percussion instruments which the singers themselves play – by virtue of six women’s voices Sokolović weaves a breathtaking tapestry, which sometimes consists of word and sound snippets, sometimes lapses into absurd rhymes, but then also comes up with some catchy agreeable melodies.