3: Banana Song (music by Vasko Atanasovski, lyrics by Aaron Kopp)
The opera is performed in three acts – three interpretations of the same story it might appear. Yet the shift of focus tells us each tome a new story as the light is shining on different people of the story. Slovenian Version – Nude Stories: how BEING can be found even when cruelly cast always in an institution for mental ill people
Austrian Version – Reflections on Friendship: How BEING can be found in small spaces, as those are spaces where human encounters called friendship can grow and be cultivated
Croatian Version – The Monument of Tenderness: how can we never kill human power, even not when defending or attacking others. Beauty in itself can be found even in the roughest places and it heals stories of destruction as well as bringing tenderness to so called heroic action.
The whole plot stays the same each time, just the focus shifts and focuses on the topic of the location. The „mentally ill people“ from the institution become general people who do not fit in the society as they claim their right of freedom. The nurse of act one is key in this version. All together, they are the bridge to create human friendship. So the main characters are the people and the nurse, not the lovers or the mother. All observe what is happening to mother, son and his fiancée Aria
They see the nurse!! The nurse sees them (like before) They see each other!!!
The mother sees them!!
They help Aria not to turn crazy!!
The mother helps her son not turn crazy
… lets explore each character with this background