The opera CILS thematizes human freedom, depicted metaphorically through birds, one in a cage and the other free. The opera for birds, as written in the announcement, was composed recently in the words of the French poet, architect and painter Jerome Karsenti. Opera CILS is an opera for birds by Ken Shakin, with mezzo-soprano Olga Gumeniuc, Esmaeel Hajhashemi as a dances and a pianist, and a soprano Helena Mamich.
Helena Mamich, a doctor and musician, born in Canberra, grew up in Split, Croatia, where she graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Split. She completed her undergraduate music studies in Canberra and her master’s degree from the Australian National University of Sydney, in the tenor-class of Dr. Paul McMahon. She has dedicated herself to contemporary music while still a student and is the winner of the first prize of the Australian competition for contemporary music New Music Art Song in 2015.
She has performed in Croatia, Italy, Canada, Germany, Estonia and France. He is a member of the chamber trio Arbor Vitae.
Opera CILS had its premier on October 31st, 2020 in Theatre Bethanien, and broadcasted on Radio On Berlin.
Helena's role is the Bird, an announcer of freedom, a reflection of the Dreamer's desires. Helena comments that the music itself was not easy for the performers. The text is in French, there are a lot of atonal things, an avant-garde, and it leans a bit on Messiaen by the type of composition. Helena sings without the lyrics because she plays a Bird, therefore she cannot speak. So she sings in vocals. These vocalizations collide with Dreamer's singing, and the piano accompaniment makes it work very good together.
Costumes are all in black and the space where the opera is performed is dark with low lighting. Only the Bird has colorful wings because it represents freedom. The opera is short but very sharp. It focuses on human existence and re-examines how important our freedom is to us humans. It is important to note that the bird in the cage - Ismail does not come out of the cage so easily despite the fact that the key exists. It is a total blockage of the mind, this is a very important symbol in the opera.
Modern outlook
During this period of the corona virus, people experienced severe claustrophobia. Many have mentally failed because this kind of oppression has happened, they have lost their jobs, they have lost their freedom.
This opera is a total realism. It is not something unreal. It is the present human, heavy and bitter, and translated into art, taking the viewers into the magical world of music.