Opening on June 25 and running until July 5, the inaugural Opera Zagreb Festival has just been presented at the Croatian National Theatre. Backed by the M+ Group, this distinguished event is being staged at prestigious theatres across Croatia and Slovenia, this year's including Zagreb, Osijek, Split and Ljubljana.
The Opera Zagreb Festival is the most significant cultural undertaking so far on the part of the M+ Group, which announced its sponsorship of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb just before Christmas 2022.
Currently with more than a dozen bases across south-eastern Europe, this multinational independent contact centre and outsourcer of business process technology is perfectly placed to partner with Zagreb’s most venerable cultural institution in the heart of Croatia’s capital. This has been the elegant home of theatre, opera and ballet for the best part of two centuries, having evolved from Zagreb’s first theatre in 1834 and granted an ornate landmark building unveiled in the presence of the Emperor Franz Joseph in 1895.
In the modern day, many theatres around Europe and beyond have been cultivating win-win business relationships with the corporate world, allowing them to stage productions of the highest standard, both from an artistic and a technical standpoint.
Speaking via video screen at this week's presentation of the new festival, Chief Conductor at the CNT in Zagreb, Pier Giorgio Morandi, outlined: “We have focused on the artistic quality of the best productions of our theatre and others, all given the opportunity of appearing at the Opera Festival. During my career, I have had the honour to take part in several significant world festivals such as Arena di Verona, the Tokyo Spring Festival, Caracalla in Rome, Taormina, the Macerata Festival, festivals in Budapest, and so on. I have always been fascinated by their popularity with audiences, attracting not only opera enthusiasts but also young international spectators. Our initiative is based on this desire to acquire new audiences here in Zagreb, both local and international”.
According to General Manager at the CNT in Zagreb, Iva Hraste Sočo, “The festival will serve as a platform for better networking of generically similar opera houses and theatres, with the potential to raise the profile the CNT in Zagreb among its peers”.
“Our audience will be able to see the recent productions of opera houses in the region and compare the artistic achievements of various ensembles,” Hraste Sočo continued.
The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb has a long opera tradition, with a festival the next logical step. Since such events need to be planned long in advance, organisers are already in contact with their European counterparts for the next edition in 2024.
The opera ensemble of the Ivan Zajc CNT from Rijeka will perform the Tchaikovsky classic Queen of Spades, conducted by Valentin Egel and directed by Christian Romanowsky and Dunja Vejzović on July 3, 2024.
“For Zagreb audiences this festival really means a lot,”said Željka Barišić Pulig, Acting Director of opera operations at the CNT in Zagreb. “Not only being a serious step forward in our operatic offer, the spectators and our artists will have the opportunity to see some of the most interesting productions of guest opera theatres such as The Queen of Spades and Faust, titles local spectators have not had the chance to see in decades. Including these festival performances, this season we will have staged 20 opera productions, including three for the youngest spectators”.
The Opera Zagreb Festival opens on June 25 with a performance of Verdi’s Nabucco that premiered at the CNT in Zagreb in 2022 with Pier Giorgio Morandi as conductor, under the direction of Giancarlo del Monaco. The Croatian National Theatre Split will then present the one-act opera Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni on June 29, with Jure Bučević as conductor, under the direction of Jelena Bosančić. On July 1, the CNT in Osijek will perform L’elisir d’amore by Donizetti, with Mladen Tutavac as conductor, under the direction of Ozren Prohić. International guests, the Slovene National Theatre in Ljubljana, close the 2023 festival on July 5 with a performance of Faust by Charles Gounod, with Ayrton Desimpelaere as conductor, under the direction of Frank Van Laecke.
Accompanying events take place outdoors at 6pm, on the eastern side of the theatre. Besides conversations and interviews with various hosts, after the performances spectators will be able to mingle with the soloists and artists. Quizzes and prizes are also planned.
Opera Zagreb Festival, June 25-July 5. For more information, see the festival website.