Night Owl

Leon Firšt, Janez Usenik: “Night Owl", a new monomusical commissioned by the Maribor
Festival 2024

Again this year, Festival Maribor presents a new synergy and creation of Slovenian creators. We will witness the premiere of a ‘monomusical’, a chamber musical in which only the protagonist performs, a narrator and singer accompanied by his own musical company. Reflecting on the performance, Janez Usenik, the author of the original text, wrote:

“The cities in which we live are not just an address. They are part of us. Just like people, cities have their own character, which they have acquired through history. A walk around a city is sometimes a conversation with it. Not in the morning, when we are hurrying to work, or in the evening, when the streets are full of people, but at night, when we are almost alone with our thoughts in the city. At that time, the city seems to be telling us something.

Night Owl is a cycle of poems that try to capture the intimate relationship of a person with his or her city, in this case Maribor. It explores the feelings one experiences in certain places, due to the general history of those places, due to one’s personal history experienced in those places, and due to the nature of the place itself. It is a dialogue between a person and the urban design of the city, which is much more important than people realise. In my opinion, like all important things in life, it actually affects us mentally and not just in a practical way.”