Cellist of Sarajevo

Walvis Bay and Swakopmund music lovers enjoyed a performance by the Bank Windhoek Kalahari Ensemble and Trio Feminale, in the musical production ‘the Cellist of Sarajevo’. Windhoek audiences get their chance this week Friday and Saturday when the same performance is repeated at the National Theatre.
‘The Cellist of Sarajevo’ is the Bank Windhoek Arts Festival’s main commissioned work for the year. The musical story is based on a historical event in 1992 during the Bosnian Civil War. During the war, a bomb killed 22 people queuing in a food line for bread. A man with an ordinary cello by the name of Vendran Smailovic, challenged an insane civil and military community engaged in a cruel civil war, by playing Albinoni’s Adagio for 22 days. During that time, a war-torn Sarajevo and the whole world became still.
The performance is directed by Prof Aldo Behrens.