“Ritual of life” musical on a regional tour

TIRANA, June 27 – “The Ritual of Life,” a musical mixing Albanian folklore with contemporary elements, has embarked on a regional tour. Premiered in Tirana in the summer of 2011, the musical will have its first stop on Saturday, June 30 in Ulcinj, an ethnic-Albanian majority inhabited town in neighbouring Montenegro.
Organizers say the musical will be performed in many other regional and Albanian towns during this summer.
Created by Zhani Ciko, the Opera House’s director, the “Ritual of Life” musical, will bring on stage three main phases of a human being’s life, the birth, the wedding and death– but in the reverse order. Arian Sukniqi, the musical’s director and choreographer says the performance starts with death and closes with birth in order not to leave the sad feeling to the public. “The musical has been treated in a contemporary aspect, it is totally Albanian in every concept and element,” said Sukniqi in a press conference. The ethnographic performance brings together soloists of the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet and the Ensemble of Folk Dances and Songs. “Our desire was to bring the life of the Albanian ensemble and folk, to bring our ethnos closely connected to life and its cycles,” says Zhani Ciko.