Libretto author: Dušanka Stojanović
Composer: Vladimir Pejković
Director: Đurđa Tešić

Visual identity and stage design: Gabriel Glid
Dramaturge: Milena Bogavac
Costume designer: Jelisaveta Tatić-Čuturilo
Author of video works: Danilo Popović

Casting:
Rap performer: Nikola Vujović
Opera singer: Dubravka Arsić
Choir of the art group CHINCH: Luka Stanisavljević, Đorđe Ilić,
Irena Vanić, Duška Rajković, Srđan Stanojević

Motto of the performance: WIN OR DIE!

A word from the author:

There is no reason to believe that CiCa and Baja exist. There is no reason to believe that they would deal with politics; that they would maybe manage to become the President and the First Lady of Serbia. There is no reason to think that "The Land of Happiness" is an ironical name for our reality – it is too obvious. Nevertheless, there is a reason to listen today to this text-libretto. Perhaps the reasons for it are in our doubt that we really live in this country. The scenic concert "The Land of Happiness" or a duel of a duet, hip hoperetta, batter-dumpling for two – as we liked to call it all the time while working on it – can also be followed and experienced as a very ordinary silicone love story. A silicone melodrama. We are going to perform it for three nights. Its further fate is uncertain. Just like the fate of our country.

The project was imagined as a music and scenic event or scenic concert for nine participants, two leading singers and a choir of seven members. The text pattern – libretto is closer to a drama text than to a classical libretto for an opera. Its topic is a love story between a boy prone to crime and a modern easy girl. The text offers in the foreground a witty but sharp satire on the present models of a successful man and an ideal girl. In the background, the text is very much engaged and gives a critical review of the contemporary Serbian society.

The criminal and the easy girl meet one evening in the night life of Belgrade. A cosmic love is born immediately between them. They have incredibly close interests. They start their vertiginous success on the path to achievement of their common dream – to become the President and the First Lady of the country. No one, except an accidental small mishap, could prevent them. This silicone love story is commented by the choir through songs. The choir consists of characteristic representatives of public and everyday life in Serbia.

The idea is to reappraise the values of life in Serbia through a genre not explored on the domestic theatrical scene so far – the genre of rap opera and an engaged contemporary text. The project was also inspired by the main topic of the entire BELEF programme of this year, HERE AND THERE IS OVER HERE. To leave, to stay, to survive, to win, to succeed in Serbia, to compete, to agree to the absurd competition of the political life that has become an irreplaceable part of life of each of us at the time of low criteria, bad taste, wrong system of values, fear of being eliminated from the competition and of finishing on a rubbish dump, struggle with localisms and globalisms in ourselves – all of this we shall feel in the duel of the duet of the rap performer and opera singer – protagonists of the rap-opera THE LAND OF HAPPINESS.

Đurđa Tešić

Born in Belgrade on 4 May 1977. Graduated from the Belgrade Faculty of Drama Arts, Department of Theatre Directing in 2002. She directed the performances: "Line" by Damir Vijuk (Bitef Theatre, 2000); "Casanova" by David Greg (Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad, 2002); "Black Milk" by Vasilije Sigarev (National Theatre in Belgrade, 2003); "Everyman" by Goran Stefanovski (Atelier 212, 2004); "Blasted" by Sarah Kane (Belgrade Drama Theatre, 2005), "Momo" by Michael Ende (Little Theatre Duško Radović, 2005); "La casa de Bernarda Alba" by Federico Garcia Lorca (National Theatre of the Republic of Srpska, Banja Luka, 2005); "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett (Atelier 212, 2006); "Miss Julie" by August Strindberg (National Theatre of the Republic of Srpska, Banja Luka, 2006).

Gabriel Glid

Born in Belgrade, in 1966. Graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Sculpture, in 1992, and won a master’s degree at the same Faculty in 1994. In 2002 taught at the Norboten Art School, Lulea, Sweden, as a visiting professor; in 2004-2005 worked as a professor at the Department of Sculpture at the Lasalle-Sia College of the Arts, Singapore. Winner of a number of awards. Lives and works in Belgrade.

Individual exhibitions:
1991 –Gallery of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Belgrade, Youth Gallery, Sarajevo; 1993 – Gallery of Kolarac, Belgrade; 1994 – Gallery Olga Petrov, Pančevo; 1995 – Gallery Lada, Belgrade; 1996 – Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; 2000 – Gallery Zvono (Bell), Belgrade; 2001 – Gallery of Contemporary Art, Niš; 2003 - Gallery of Contemporary Art, Pančevo; 2005 – Front Room Gallery, Singapore; 2007 – Gallery Zlatno Oko (Golden Eye), Novi Sad; 2007 – Gallery Remont.

Group exhibitions (Selection out of some 80 group exhibitions):
1994 – Second Cetinje Biennale, Cetinje; 1995 – Sculpture Triennale, Pančevo; 1996 - Sculpture Triennale, Pančevo; 1997 – Visible-Invisible, Contemporary Yugoslav Art, Helexpo, Thessalonica; 2000 – Welcome Understanding, Yugoslav Art, Bratislava; 2001 – Serbian Contemporary Art, SALON D’AUTOMNE, Grand Palais, Paris; 2002 – October Salon, Belgrade; 2003 – ArtLink, IYA 2003, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Moscow, Lulea sommar Biennal, Lulea, Sweden.

Danilo Popović

Born in Belgrade, in 1971. Since 1992 has been working as a TV journalist. In parallel deals with short and experimental video forms. Author of music for several theatre performances ("The Line", Bitef Theatre; "Casanova", Serbian National Theatre, Novi Sad; "Miss Julie", National Theatre of the Republic of Srpska, Banja Luka) and documentary films ("Memento", "A Lost Film").