World Premiere Performances
Baba: The Life and Death of Stana
A New Opera by Karmina Šilec
Performed by Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble
February 23-26 on Z Space’s Steindler Stage
BABA: The Life and Death of Stana is inspired by real and imagined stories of Balkan sworn virgins (women who live as men after taking vows of chastity and celibacy). The tradition of sworn virgins is rooted in a centuries-old social code of law present in remote rural regions of Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Serbia. Born as women, life circumstances—including the loss of male relatives in blood feuds or a desire to escape an oppressive arranged marriage—led these individuals to become men to gain the honors, rights, privileges, and freedoms of community patriarchs. The motives for this gender transformation were traditionally social responsibility and family honor, as opposed to sexual preference or feelings of being male by nature.
BABA brings to light a disappearing practice of women sacrificing their sexuality and transforming themselves into men as a means of survival in an isolated, dangerous, impoverished, and intensely patriarchal and gender-binary part of the world.
An innovative, non-narrative take on Balkan epic story-singing traditions, BABA explores themes of gender, otherness, choice, virginity, sexual identity, and the complexities of interpreting these Balkan gender-transformation stories through a contemporary, liberal, Western gaze.
Read more information on Kitka’s website.
Creative Team
Author, Composer and Director of the Project: Karmina Šilec
Performed by Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble
Kelly Atkins, Caitlin Tabancay Austin, Leslie Bonnett, Briget Boyle, Barbara Byers, Shira Cion, Juliana Graffagna, Erin Lashnits Herman, Shira Kammen, Janet Kutulas, Maclovia Quintana, and Beth Wilmurt
Scenographer: Dorian Šilec Petek
Movement Advisor: Sidra Bell
Assistant Movement Advisor: Sarah Lisette Chiesa
Projection Design: Dorian Šilec Petek, Miha Likar
Lighting Design & Technical Director: G. Chris Griffin
Costume Design: Karmina Šilec & Vesna Novitović
Percussion Coach: Rumen “Sali” Shopov
About Karmina Šilec
One of the most exciting and provocative exponents of the contemporary music and theater scene, Karmina Šilec is the artistic director and conductor of Carmina Slovenica, New Music Theater Choregie and Ensemble ¡Kebataola!. With her artistic concept Choregie and a research- oriented process, she has brought freshness and originality to the world of vocal music and theater. As a conductor and director, she has had projects with numerous theater companies, opera houses and ensembles worldwide. Her interests lie in music-driven theater, music that refers or reacts to other fields, the human voice as a central fascination, and the exploration of different music and theater languages.
Šilec has received two Music Theatre NOW awards, the Robert Edler Prize for Choral Music and, together with her companies, the Golden Mask and more than 20 other international awards. Her ensembles have performed at such highly esteemed venues and festivals as the Dresdner Musikfestspiele; Festival d’Automne à Paris; Holland Festival; Hong Kong Cultural Centre; Melbourne International Arts Festival; Moscow Easter Festival; Operadagen Rotterdam; Prototype Festival; the Ruhrtriennale; St. Petersburg Philharmonia Grand Hall; Teatro Colón; Teresa Carreño Theater; and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space. In 2017, she was nominated for the Europe Prize Theatrical Realities. (www.karminasilec.com)
About Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble
Inspired by traditional songs and vocal techniques from Eastern Europe and Eurasia, Kitka has earned international recognition for its distinctive sound, exploring a vast palette of ancient yet contemporary-sounding vocal effects. Kitka's commitment to presenting traditional song as a living and evolving expressive art form has led to adventurous collaborations with some of the world's most exciting indigenous musicians and contemporary composers ranging from Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares to Meredith Monk. Currently celebrating its 43rd season, Kitka began as a grassroots group of amateur singers from diverse ethnic and musical backgrounds who shared a passion for the stunning dissonances, asymmetric rhythms, intricate ornamentation, and resonant strength of traditional Eastern European women's vocal music. Since its informal beginnings, the group has evolved into an award-winning touring ensemble known for its artistry, versatility and mastery of the demanding techniques of regional vocal styling, as well as for its innovative explorations in new music for women's voices. The ensemble's wide-ranging performance, teaching and recording activities have exposed millions to the haunting beauty of their unique repertoire.
The commissioning, creation, and presentation of BABA is supported, in part, by The Hewlett50 Arts Commissions, The National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, the City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Mills College Performing Arts, The Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Berkeley Repertory Theater’s Ground Floor Artist Residencies, and a global village of generous individual donors.
