By applying modern artistic methods, stage performance in a nonchronological sequence aimed at flying through time, and using a predominantly multimedia approach to conjure up the emergence, development, and future of our civil aviation, script author Miloš Rajković, supported by Braca Petković as director and dramaturge, created five thematic wholes that stage designer Miloš Vuksanović illustrated on stage with hanging scale models of airplanes, photographs on large canvasses and documentary films from the film library depicting the feats of pioneers of local aviation.
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From the superior presentation by narrator/actor Goran Sultanović, whose appearance and words opened the piece about the history of local airmen, to the dialogue between Prince Pavle who launched the motto that "our passenger planes should fl y our skies" and initiated the struggle to establish a domestic aviation company, and on to Tadija Sondermajer, who was vice-president of the Aeroklub, pilot and engineer, and who together with Leonid Bajdak carried out a true feat with a Potez 25 aircraft – a record-breaking flight from Paris to Bombay, India – the first segment of the performance was marked by a classical but also modern and authentic stamp that carried an ulterior symbol – the realization of a dream about flying. |
Tadija Sondermajer, as played by Nenad Jezdić, was shown as a modest but very determined and principled man. This great feat he took as an honourable Serbian officer after having successfully carried out his assignment.
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Prince Pavle, as played by Tihomir Stanić, was shown as someone genuinely excited and proud of the feat by "our man", glorifying his flight and comparing it to Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic. In the witty dialogue filled with visible joy, we could partially discern bits of the protagonists’ characters, but also on a more general level, some of the essential traits of local people’s mentality.
Scene two, with musical variations of five numbers by Belgrade’s "Big Band", was not merely designed to act as a bridge from one artistic media (drama) to another (music). Starting off slowly but then whipping up into a furious pace, Glenn Miller’s jazz numbers directly alluded to – for us perhaps novel – that nostalgia-filled era.
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The sounds of "Moonlight Serenade", "Tuxedo Junction", "Little Brown Jug", "American Patrol" and "In the Mood", as conducted by Ivan Galić and wearing Jat pilot uniforms, coupled with projections of photographs and a documentary film on a big screen, held out the opportunity for us to follow the evolution of Yugoslav Airlines, a company that has grown in size and significance with each day.
Photographs of cabin personnel and content passengers permeated the third segment of the programme in which we heard Radoslav Grajić’s composition "The Stewardess", which won first prize at the "Belgrade Spring" music festival in 1963, the same year that JAT introduced the then latest airplane mode to its fleet l, the famous Caravelle.
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The fourth segment, into which we are ushered by the narrator, offered two scenes from the National Theatre’s ballet performance "Who’s That Singing Over There", to the music of Vojislav Kostić and choreography by Staša Zurovac. A modern dance based on the renowned play and movie of Serbia’s most accomplished contemporary playwright, Dušan Kovačević, was a gift to Jat Airways, which has always unselfishly strived to extended assistance and support to artists of our major cultural institutions. | And finally, in the fifth segment, when the narrator withdraws, we are left in semi-darkness while the smoke on the stage sparkles different colour laser beams dancing on the baroque ceiling of the National Theatre. On the screen that was set on the stage, there appeared, as in the latest Jat Airways advertisement, well-known faces from the world of sport, art, entertainment: Vlade Divac, Nikola Kojo, Zdravko Čolić, Zoran Cvijanović, Ana Ivanović, Jelena Janković…
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Mr Nebojša Starčević, Jat Airways CEO
and His Exellency Alexander Alexeyev,
Ambassador of the Russian Federation
to Serbia |
Mr Nebojša Starčević and
Her Excellency Yaffa Ben-Ari,
Ambassador of Israel to Serbia |
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Mr Nebojša Starčević and
Mr Jean Pierre Vernon, CFM Vice President
Northern/Central/Eastern Europe
& Near-East Asia |
Mr Nebojša Starčević and
Mr Bernard Fortat CFM Industrial
Offsets and Cooperation Director | |
