‘The night before a holiday’, the poem of the poet Aleksa Šantić from Mostar begins with the verses:
Tomorrow is a holiday.
The candle casts
its soft light
and illuminates my room.
I am alone…
The holiday is for all of us, whether it’s one day, a week, or the entire month. It’s a time when we don’t want to be alone, when we wish to feel warmer, to be with our loved ones, to be a little happier and more beautiful than usual. We want both our homes and the city to look special, for all of us to be together, smiling, more noble, and kinder towards each other. Whether we have a Christmas tree in the room or a candle on the table, all we want is for something to shine for us during the winter solstice holidays, signaling the end of darkness and the appearance of light. To uplift us and detach us from the mundane grayness filled with – noise and fury.
And what shines more enchantingly than the light of the stage?
And what carries us farther from the turbulent reality of today than art, especially live art right before us – ballet, music, opera, gala concerts.
We come to these events well-dressed and excited, and we leave them radiant and encouraged, with the thought that despite all the threats of today’s world, beauty and the joy of creation still exist. The unity of the audience captivated by the skills of performers and artists who share the joy of performance with us makes these shows a true celebration of the holidays.
Because, it is a holiday and we need that break, that soft light to briefly illuminate us inside.
In many parts of the Western world, a holiday unfolds in the theater. In ballet, The Nutcracker plays, while in the ‘Die Fledermaus’ opera we hear New Year’s waltzes, and everywhere, those performances-celebrations happen where artists become our new preachers of beauty, shielding us from the approaching winter, from the cold and darkness.
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“I fell in love with ballet“, writes to me my friend Ekrem Dupanović from Sarajevo, editor and founder of this portal. “I went to see ‘The Nutcracker’ with Vedrana during the holidays. And I’ve already bought tickets for the next ballet performance, ‘Dolly Bell.’”
Not all cultural institutions in our surroundings have holiday programs, but in the United States, where I live, and where theaters depend on attendance and the number of visitors, everyone strives to offer something special for the holidays: concerts under candlelight or special performances related to the New Year’s festive days.
In our region, this is a relatively new practice mostly associated with ballet performances. The staging of ‘The Nutcracker’ is a long-standing tradition in Western countries, including ours, where it is performed nightly during the holidays. In American and English culture, during the holiday season, dramatic theaters often present popular musicals, traditional ones like ‘Oklahoma’, or romantic ones like ‘My Fair Lady’. They also stage purpose-built productions with holiday themes, such as Charles Dickens’, ‘Christmas Carol’, credited with transforming Christmas from an intimate, small, domestic celebration into a holiday of public festivities and gatherings in 19th-century England.
For theaters, New Year’s special programs are an opportunity for additional marketing and increased attendance. It’s also a chance to cultivate a new audience that may continue to come even after the holidays. This is an opportunity for educating a very young audience, some of whom may be stepping into a theater building for the first time during these holiday events. A special New Year’s program designed for the youngest has become a common practice not only in children’s theaters.
The National Theatre in Belgrade, this holiday season, in memory of the director Jagoš Marković, has revived ‘Cinderella’, a comedic opera in his incomparable and witty interpretation. As part of the holiday program aimed at the youngest, there was a children’s opera ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, which was performed twice a day, including matinee shows.
Hundreds of children, mostly girls (who, according to existing research, will eventually make up 70% of the theater audience), come dressed in festive attire. For some, it is their first time entering the specially decorated foyer of the theater. Decorated Christmas trees, Nutcracker figures, and the enchantment of dance, lights, costumes, and music will captivate many of these girls with a love for the theater and the beauty of a shared festive experience that demands silence, concentration, and the absence of phones.
“The National Theatre in Belgrade brings together three artistic ensembles – drama, opera, and ballet, performing in a building with distinctive architecture and interior. From the perspective of the marketing director, it was crucial for me to leverage this unique position and capability, allowing the national theater to connect more with the audience through a thematic repertoire approach. This year, we approached the holiday program as a special event, following the global practices of major institutions, from the Metropolitan Opera to the National Theatre in London. In October, we began creating a program that we grouped together, visually branded, and promoted as ‘Celebrating the Holidays at the National Theatre.’
It was a challenge for us to integrate 27 performances in December and January, involving a large ensemble of opera, ballet, choir, and orchestra. We had to define everything in advance and be ready for promotion by early November. The audience response was incredible – all performances sold out very quickly. We are talking about 14,000 tickets, which was a novelty for us to start selling so early.
With a gala concert dedicated to the centenary of Maria Callas’s birth and the traditional New Year’s gala concert, we have almost two months of holiday program. It’s a tremendous opportunity for audience development and creating a bond with the National theater as a place for a unique and unforgettable artistic experience,” says Zdenka Milanović, who has been overseeing marketing and sales at the National Theatre in Belgrade since last season.
In the theater, one comes to the performance deliberately and with anticipation. Attendees come dressed in their best outfits, wearing their fanciest shoes. They come in the company of family or friends.
And that experience, where we are all together – both artists and the audience, witnessing something joyful and exceptional on stage, that sense of festivity – everyone will carry it with them into the snowy or rainy night, knowing they have experienced something unforgettable.
The unforgettable will linger in their minds and in the desire to come back, be it next month, next year for the holidays, or perhaps even next week. Because in the theater, it is always a holiday. A holiday in motion. Come and join us.
