Tirana: Ambassador Vukčević met with the Director of the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Albania and the President of the Federation of International Dance Festivals

Director Voshtina thanked for the reception and communicated that she visited Belgrade in September of this year, when the Protocol on cooperation between the national theatres of Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania was signed.

The document was drawn up within the framework of the Open Balkan initiative and it launched the process of implementation of the content of the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of culture, signed at the Open Balkan summit in Ohrid. Signing of this Protocol practically represents transition to the operational level of cooperation, and at the Open Balkan Forum in Ohrid we came up with the idea of ​​forming an “Open Balkan Theatre Festival”, which would in fact entail an exchange of experiences, pedagogues, artists and performances.

She pointed out that individual projects could be financed with the internal funds of the institutions, but that the festival organisation depended on the funds determined by the ministries. In this context she presented the idea that next summer orchestras from all three countries will perform the opera Carmina Burana on a square in Tirana, if sufficient financial resources are available.

Ambassador Vukčević pointed out that one of the priorities in his work was the improvement of cultural cooperation between the two countries. He communicated that the National Theatre in Belgrade and the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet from Tirana have established cooperation and that Albanian artists have visited Belgrade on several occasions.

President of FIDAF Alimehmeti thanked for the reception and assistance provided by the Embassy in the organisation of the International Folklore Festival held in Tirana in July of this year in which a folklore ensemble from Serbia also participated. He asked the Ambassador for help in connecting the Albanian folklore ensemble with the Serbian folklore ensemble „Kolo“ in order to formalise the cooperation. He presented a plan to organise festivals of children's folk dances in Durrës and Valona and invite participants from Serbia.

The Ambassador pointed out that there was no such type of cooperation before, but that we would be happy to be the first to connect folklore artists from Serbia and Albania.