Monograph on the 40th anniversary of the staging of Aeschylus' Oresteia in the Ljubljana Drama Theatre and on the 80th anniversary of the director Mile Korun
Theatre, as the most ephemeral of all arts, demands that we devote our full attention to its history, as it testifies to our spiritual condition, to the integration of cultural and social events in Europe and the world. Thus, on the 40th anniversary of the staging of Aeschylus' Oresteia at the Ljubljana Drama Theatre, directed by Mile Korun, the Slovenian Theatre Museum published the monograph ORESTEIA '68, which attempts to restore all the important elements from which Korun's interpretation of the famous Greek tragedy was built in 1968. When Korun's Oresteia came to life on the stage of the Ljubljana Drama Theatre in March 1968, both sides of the then theatre criticism in Slovenia, both conservative and modernist, had to admit in one voice that Mile Korun had created a paradigmatic performance with which he outlined the beginning of Slovenian theatrical modernism. In his interpretation of ancient tragedy, Korun consciously renounced the traditional understanding of Greek theatrical tradition and courageously and as consistently as possible followed his vision, appropriate for the 20th century, of one of the dramatic foundations of Western civilization.
This monographic publication reprints the diary notes that Korun wrote in the year when he was composing Oresteia at the Drama of the Slovenian National Theatre Ljubljana (along with Shakespeare's Hamlet and Cankar's The Servants), which provide valuable insight into the creation of the play, and the notes also contain the director's comments on current events in the world. Additional insight into world theatre events in the 1960s is provided by Veno Taufer, and with an in-depth study of Oresteia, the young researcher Andreja N. Inkret. The book is equipped with the director's stage designs and costume designs by Mija Jarc, with photographs by Marjan Pal, which were long considered lost, and with reviews that were published after the premiere of Oresteia in 1968. It collects echoes from the play's tours in Hungary, Italy, the Soviet Union and the Dubrovnik Summer Festival. An integral part of the monograph is also Darijan Božič's musical score for Oresteia, which was premiered on the stage of the central theatre in 1968. It is believed that it was during this time that he reinvented the concept of freedom, both social, artistic and spiritual.
The monograph is also accompanied by a DVD with the original recording of the performance, published and printed by the RTV Slovenia Cassette and Disc Publishing House.