In cooperation with our friends and associates from the Slovenian Chamber Music Theater, this year we have launched the first regional online festival “Opera Femina Fest”, where two operas were represented: “Absurdium” by Jovanka Trbojević and “Ex / odus of Joy” by Nataša Bogojević, based on the text by Jelena Sasnik. Both operas are written in similar form, intended for small ensembles and with present-day themes. The audience reception was extremely favourable, so praise and compliments to the authors and performers are still coming in.

An online panel discussion was held on Sunday, December the 5th, where artists with exceptional creative, performing and pedagogical experience and reputation  have participated.

We have raised questions concerning all opera creators, critics and experts, about why is opera losing, or rather isn’t creating, young audience today. Whether access to opera is closed, whether opera is considered an elitist art, or its insufficient representation in school curricula does not allow young people to create artistic taste.

Participants have exchanged experiences they had during their career development as women, the weight and beauty of women’s creativity, an eternal question whether there is a “women’s writing”, the question of positioning women in art and women’s art, prejudices and misconceptions about the division in art in general, these like many other topics opened up spontaneously during the discussion.

The general conclusion of the panel is that these events and the collaboration that emerges from them are of utmost importance for the affirmation of women’s creativity and art in general.

Panel discussion participants:

  • Diana Imeri Ilkoska, conductor and ballet accompanist at the Louis Nikolovski State University in Skopje
  • Jelena Sasnik, conductor and Master of Conducting, Professor of Orchestra, Choir and Conducting since 1994, Artistic Leader and Conductor of the “Youth Super Choir and Orchestra”, author of the text “Diary of a Migrant Woman” based on the screenplay for “Ex / Odus of Joy” . Writer for the feminist magazine “Working Women” as well as for “Politikin zabavnik”
  • Maja Gal Štomar, author of 14 works and actress who directs and writes drama texts and theater pedagogy
  • Katja Konvalinka, soprano, president of the Slovenian Chamber Music Theater
  • Eva Hribernik, opera director
  • Božana Meidl Brajić, composer and pedagogue, Burgenland, Austria
  • Gorana Ćurgus, harpist, soloist of the Opera of the National Theater in Belgrade and a member of the author’s MOTO team
  • Marija Mitic Vasic, soprano, soloist of the Opera of the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad and professor of singing at the Music School “Josif Marinkovic”
  • Natalija Stanković, master music theorist and opera director (Verona Accademia per l’Opera)
  • Nataša Jović Trivić, Principal Opera Artist of the Opera of the National Theater in Belgrade and president of MOTO