Arsenije Milosevic

Who was Arsenije Milosevic?

Arsenije Milosevic was a Yugoslavian film director, television director, librettist and opera director.

Milosevic's career started in the Belgrade Cine-Club. In 1957 he became the first Serbian director to be awarded a prize at the Cannes Film Festival, receiving third place in the experimental film category for his film Orpheus. He then worked at the Belgrade radio and television station. After the death of his wife Olga, he turned to theatre and wrote the libretto for the opera Gilgamesh, for which the music was composed by Rudolph Brucci. Gilgamesh was first performed in 1985. Milosevic staged it like a new, contemporary opera, as a multimedia show with contemporary sets and choreography. The opera was highly rated by critics and audiences. He also wrote a libretto Under the Sign of Mephistopheles for which the music was composed by a Serbian composer Srdjan Jacimovic. This libretto was based on Goethe's Faust, but the story was transposed to the present day and Dr Faustus was a beautiful woman. However, this opera was never performed.