Cult Film Transformed into Successful Genesis Opera

A new Absurdist opera, The Marathon Family, had a big success critically and with audiences at the Bregenz Festival in Austria in August 2008.

A new commission by the Genesis Foundation, it was composed by Isidora Žebeljan, whose first opera, Zora, was also commissioned by Genesis.

Further performances of The Marathon Family in this production (directed by Nicola Raab) took place in Belgrade on 14 and 16 October 2008 and then in Vienna on 22, 24 and 25 October 2008. The opera was a co-production between the Bregenz Festspiele, Kunst aus der Zeit  and the Neue Oper Wien in co-operation with Jugokoncert, Belgrade.

The libretto for the Opera is by the composer Isidora Žebeljan with the aid of Milica Žebeljan and Borislav Čičovački.  The Marathon Family (Serbian: Maratonci trče počasni krug), became famous as a 1982 comedy film written by Dušan Kovačević and directed by Serbian director Slobodan Šijan. The film is a cultural icon in Eastern Europe and has cult film status in Serbia as well as other countries from the former Yugoslavia region. It is regarded as one of the best and most important films ever made in Serbia and there is great interest in the operatic version among those who know and love the film.

Read about Isidora Žebeljan.