listen to the song from the show with
RealAudio: "Two
Such Opposed Kings"
Music: Sergei Dreznin
Text: William Shakespeare
Dialogue: Krassnij Angel Company with the contributions from Mirolsav
Prstojevic
Performed by
Krassnij Angel
Company
with Natasa Mirkovic, Sinisa Stork, Jesse Webb, Anatoly
Dorovskikh, Maida Karisik , Paul Wimberger,
Reinwald Kranner, Vesna Petkovic, Roland
Schueller, Sergei Dreznin
In the heart of old Vienna, a passionate
new musical.
The story of a modern Romeo and Juliet, surrounded by war,
corruption and human evil. Shakespeare's classic, mixed with true
stories from besieged Sarajevo, set to music by Sergei Dreznin, whom
critics have compared with Bernstein and Lloyd Webber. Performed by
Krassnij Angel Company, which combines some of the best voices and
brightest talents from several nations.
Composers
Notes
We came from Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Russia, the United
States and Austria, and met here in Vienna, where every visitor
wandering the ancient narrow streets can feel how the past mingles
with the present. Where else to create a show in which Shakespeare's
play is pierced through with scenes from the war in Bosnia, part of
Austria's 19th century empire, now just an hour's flight away? As the
Broadway hit "Rent" brought Puccini opera into the 1990s world of New
York's Lower East Side, we take a classic and create a modern,
multiethnic musical. Shakespeare's immortal lines are sung and
infused with new life through the rhythmical power of rap, the
seductive sounds of rock and the sheer appeal of jazz. Through this,
we seek to share the beauty, passion and tragicomedy of our world as
it looks on the verge of a new millenium. After playing in Austria,
Croatia and Bosnia we bring our production back to its birthplace
Vienna, where its 1995 premiere -- on the day the Dayton peace accord
was reached. In September 1996 production opened
the International
Multicultural Theater Festival in Vienna
AFTER
TOURING IN CROATIA AND BOSNIA, WHERE THE SHOW REPRESENTED AUSTRIA AT
THE FIRST POST-WAR ART FESTIVAL "SARAJEVO WINTER 1996"
A NEW EXTENDED VERSION RAN IN THE VIENNA ENSEMBLE THEATRE
AM PETERSPLATZ IN JULY 1997. "AN IMMEDIATE THEATER YOU RARELY
SEE",WROTE AUSTRIAN WEEKLY "DIE FURCHE"
read "Romance
Among Ruins", Business Express,
New Dehli
read an article in
Nacion (in
Spanish)
Excerpts from
reviews
"Explosive music theater...fresh images, touching
moments"Vienna daily Kronen Zeitung
"Seven young mimes, seven personalities ...the music has all the
makings of a hit...The groups´s encore is 'A Tune For Bosnia'.
This must be heard to be believed"Vienna daily Die Presse
"...deeply emotional experince for actors and audience"Vienna
daily Täglich Alles
"Interesting score...combining jazz elements with
expressionism"Spanish news agency EFE
"...they succeed in transmitting the whole range of emotions and
conflicts, from the most subleme to the grotesque"Spanish daily El
Pais
"...the composer found about the only way to transfer the war
conflicts to the stage"Feral Tribune, Croatia
"They come from Zagreb, Louisiana, Moskau, Vienna, Zenica,
Fohnsdorf and Sarajevo. They live and convincingly convey a message
that is timeless and valid anywhere in the world: the fate of the
individual -- and only that -- shows the deadly absurdity of
war".Innsbruck daily Tiroler Tageszeitung
"From reality to the stage: Moslem Juliet and Serb Romeo are
a triumph in Vienna"Il Messaggero, Milan
STORY
Prologue. Division of Sarajevo. UN officer tries to
stop the fight, but is himself involved in ădirty" deals with
Romeo: trading cars and petrol and...smuggling people out of
Sarajevo.
Cafe (Kafana) ăCasper". A place where the underworld meets
elite visitors like CNN's Christiane Amanpour and where Romeo meets
his beautiful Juliet. Police arrive and arrest everybody for
violating the curfew. Romeo and Juliet realize, that, fatally, they
belong to one another, but also to to different ethnic groups. He is
Serb, she is Muslim. In the police prison cell, they dream of a life
in Mantua, far from the war and siege ...
In order to be able to flee through Roman Catholic Croatia they
change religions and marry in a Catholic church.
Back in Kafana ăCasper" the events take a fatal turn:
Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo takes revenge for his friend - and
himself becomes a killer. He must flee Sarajevo. Don Lorenz - a
Sarajevo gangster - takes care of everything. The other side
won´t shoot. And Juliet can go with Romeo! But something goes
wrong. At 4 p.m. two shots are fired on Vrbanja bridge. Romeo and
Juliet die in each other´s arms.
The waiter of the Cafana ăKasper" sells the ăRomeo
and Juliet of Sarajevo" story to a foreign reporter for $ 6000.
They become an international symbol of the war.
Sarajevo ...
...became a symbol of suffering. Before the war
it was known for its particular enjoyment of life. It had
Yugoslavia´s best rock music, it was the home of film director
Emir Kusturica, a town suffused with pride and elegance, epitomized
in its striking women, the jewelry of its many goldsmiths, the Ray
-Ban sunglasses and Levi 501 jeans that were the virtual uniform of
its youth. Sarajevo celebrated life by acquiring its flashiest
accoutrements. Even during the war, it was not only a matter of
survival but also of essential style to have the best handset radios
for communication, fastest 4-wheel drive, coolest shades or greatest
gun. Black humour and the readiness to have a good time survived the
tragedy, too: many people regularly carried sleeping bags, beating
curfew by bedding down wherever it found them. Even under siege,
women donned fur coats and makeup: to salvage the appearance of life,
no sacrifice was spared.
Romeo and Juliet (a real
event)
In May 1993, Bosko Brkic, a Serb, and Admira Ismic, a
Muslim, both 25 and lovers long before Bosnia´s war slashed
thier ethnic groups apart, decided to seek a future outside besieged,
gun-battered Sarajevo. Throughout the war, the Serbs and thier Croat
and Muslim foes mantained illegal trading ties, smuggling goods and
people across frontlines for high price. Bosko and Admira tapped
connections, and arranged to dash toward what they hoped would be
freedom across the city´s Vrbanja bridge, a killing ground
throughout the war. They had almost made it when gunshots rang out.
Brkic died instantly. Ismic, severely wounded, crawled toward him and
died in his embrace. The bodies of Sarajevo´s Romeo and Juliet
lay in no man´s land for a week before the Serbs retrieved and
buried them in their part of the city. After the war ended, and all
of Sarajevo fell under majority Muslim control, Ismic´s father
reburied them in Lion´s Cemetery, alongside thousands of other
victims of Sarajevo´s siege.
Back
to Sergei´s Home Page
This page is hosted
by 
Get your own Free
Home Page