The history of the oldest and the central national theatre institution, the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, commenced in the 1830s in the context of political and cultural ideas of the Croatian national revival. Yet, centuries-old stage and theatre continuity preceded the artistic and professional constitution of the home theatre of the Croatian theatre arts in Zagreb. It had been founded by the Jesuits who performed around 400 stage works at their school events between 1607 and 1772. Subsequently, between 1791 and 1834 students performed comedies and Kajkavian adaptations of German, French and Italian literature on the stage of the Kaptol seminary. German touring companies, that were undoubtedly significant for the development of the cultural and theatre habits of the Zagreb audience, continually gave visiting performances between 1780 and 1860. Since 1797, dramas and operas were performed on the stage of the Amadé Theatre in the German language, that was subsequently predominant on the stage of the upper town Stanković theatre. This theatre opened with Körner's tragedy Niklas Graf von Zriny performed by a German company on October 4, 1834. At that time, the Croatian national revival, a movement whose cultural policy's vertical was the language, in its attempts to establish the national independence operated a theatre stage which had to perform works in the Croatian language. The outlines of the future national theatre were clear in the programmatically toned articles and speeches of our reformers, especially of Dimitrije Demeter and Ivan Mažuranić and their endeavours slowly penetrated into the theatre scene. Sometimes Croatian songs (patriotic and battle songs) were inserted into German performances or German plays were written with national and Croatian features. Thus, the 'patriotic play' Die Magdalenen Grotte bei Ogulin in which the first Croatian words echoed (Gaj's patriotic song Horvatov sloga i zjedinjenje known more for its first verse Još Hrvatska nij propala) was performed on February 7, 1835. However, all of these were detached moments, because there was no Shtokavian drama literature and no Croatian drama ensemble. Due to Demeter's enthusiastic dedication, the Illyrian library (predecessor of the Matica ilirska, today Matica hrvatska (Matrix Croatica)) took resolute steps. It was upon its invitation in May 1840 that the company Leteće diletantsko pozorište (Flying dilettante theatre) from Novi Sad came to Zagreb and signed a professional contract, thus founding the first drama ensemble, additionally complemented with Croatian actors. In Zagreb it began its work under the title Domorodno teatralno društvo.

The first professional performance of the Domorodno teatralno društvo given on the stage of the old theatre on St. Mark's square in the Shtokavian dialect of the Croatian language on June 10, 1840, Juran and Sophia or The Turks at Sisak by Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski is considered as the beginning of the activities of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. The Domorodno teatralno društvo during the eighteen months of its existence beside the seven performances of Juran and Sophia gave fifty performances of local and foreign authors. After its departure in November 1841, German drama and Italian opera companies were dominant again for several seasons, with only occasionally organised performances in the Croatian language that were performed by our actors. From these beginnings of stage professionalism in the context of the romantic Illyrian movement, when there were actually neither political nor sociological-cultural conditions for a stable theatre life in a city of ten thousand inhabitants, two full centuries will pass by under the repressive Viennese central regime until the foundation of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, that is to say, the commencement of its continuous work in the first season of 1860/1861. Only after the Austrian losses at Magenta and Solferino in 1859 and the end of Bach's dictatorship was the situation ready for the long yearned implementation of a linguistic and administrative independence created as a precondition for the process of the institutionalisation of a national theatre.

On the historical date of November 24, 1860, loud patriotic demonstrations of a young audience interrupted a performance in German. The curtain came down before which the actor Vilim Lesić proclaimed that from that day onwards, our stage would only give performances in Croatian. From that date, the artistic, administrative and organisational redefinition of the Croatian National Theatre began, based on the Croatian language. Demeter's initiative was also important for the initialisation of a legal and statutory formalisation of the theatre as an institution, in which he relied on his old 'Illyrians' who were then members of the Parliament, set in motion after a ten-year break. There were no disagreements amongst the parties on the 'theatre issue'. Already from April/May 1861 the introduced bill passed through parliament committees and soon after, on August 24, 1861 the 'Article LXXVII on the theatre of the Triune Kingdom of Yugoslavia' was enacted. On this date, the position and the function of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb have been legally determined in the Croatian public and cultural life. Finally, subsidies and the management of the theatre institution founded in the Croatian language and based on the Croatian artistic works have been secured. In that sense, the law assumed the foundation of 'a school for theatre staff', the establishment of an opera and the expansion of the activities 'to other regions of our population'. August Šenoa as the artistic director (1868–1870) stood up for the arrival of Ivan noble Zajc who established the Opera in 1870 and, several years later, the Ballet commenced its work within the Opera (1876). Therefore today – 150 years later – all the mentioned historical dates are included in Article 2 of the Statute of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb:

The beginning of the activities of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb is connected with the first professional performance given in the Croatian language on June 10, 1840.

The establishment of the theatre under the title the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb took place on November 24, 1860 when drama performances were played solely in the Croatian language. On August 24, 1861 the Croatian Parliament declared the Zagreb theatre a worldly institute within which the Opera began its work on October 2, 1870 and the Ballet on November 4, 1876.

One of the key events in the history of the Croatian theatre arts was the opening of the new building of the Croatian National Theatre on October 14, 1895, during the second season in the mandate of Stjepan Miletić (appointed on February 11, 1894), who was able to realise his ideas in their entirety only on the new stage. At the head of the central Croatian 'artistic institution' Miletić professionalised the work and the organisation of the theatre (following the examples of Burgtheater and Comédie Française), had a defined artistic programme, created an artistic-repertoire model that has been varying all until today in all the three artistic branches: world classics, national tradition and contemporary works. Miletić re-established the work of the Opera after its interruption in 1889, organised the Ballet and launched the Croatian drama school. During his mandate (1894–1898) the national theatre was launched into the 20th century with an already recognisable artistic form (language – repertoire – style) and defined professional standards according to European norms.

The management and artistic models of our central theatre institution defined at that time had been active for 150 years and are still valid today. The three ensembles, Drama, Opera and Ballet have been passing through different artistic and stylistic developmental phases, often depending on the historical-political circumstances. Within them, there is a series of historically significant periods of certain general managers even after the reformer Miletić that can be singled out. His friend and follower Vladimir Treščec Branjski (1909–1914) permanently established the Opera and organised a ballet school, opened a professional position of set designer for Branimir Šenoa and Tomislav Krizman, with Ivo Vojnović in the lead, initiated a professional theatre weekly 'The Croatian Stage', brought back Ivo Raić from abroad and introduced Branko Gavella to the theatre. Between the two world wars the general manager was Julije Benešić (1921–1926) and his assistants were the Drama director Branko Gavella and the Opera director Petar Konjović. In the artistic sense, this period is considered to be one of the most significant periods in the history of the Croatian theatre. Benešić gathered numerous and diverse writers, painters, interpreters, above all establishing a theatre of Croatian directors, as a foundation for the contemporariness of its stage appearance. The independent development of the Ballet commenced in 1921 with the arrival of Margarita Froman and her brothers, the dancers Valentin and Maximillian and the set designer Pavel – all unavoidable artists in the brilliant series of our theatre immigrants who stayed and created their works in Zagreb. Benešić, although only for a short while, was the only one in history who succeeded to solve the problem of a second stage. It was situated in the ex-shooting range in Tuškanac between 1923 and 1929, where mostly operettas and comedies were played, all until the opening of the adapted Small theatre in Frankopanska in 1929, which in 1953 became the building of the newly founded Zagreb Drama Theatre (today carrying the name of its founder Gavella).

After WWII, in 1950, when with the artistic-aesthetic and genre pluralisation and the establishment of more theatres in Zagreb and elsewhere in the country, the stage picture of the Croatian theatre arts significantly altered, Marijan Matković, a writer, became the general manager. In the context of liberalisation of the ideological discipline, he achieved recognition for a new generation of our dramatists and performed contemporary foreign authors, and as a sign of artistic continuity he brought Branko Gavella and Tito Strozzi back to Zagreb. He also opened the door to new directors and set designers. Mirko Božić as the general manager won historical credit since in 1967 he succeeded to obtain and then lead a thorough reconstruction of the worn out state of the building that had its re-opening in 1969. Credit is also due to him for having preserved the coherency of the ensembles and the artistic level of performances during the reconstruction, when they had to work in other venues, as well as on tours. In the 1970s after the reconstruction when general managers were theatre directors Mladen Škiljan and Kosta Spaić, top-level creations of all the three ensembles followed and big-scale performances confirmed artistically equally strong ensembles of Drama, Opera and Ballet as repertoire leaders. During the Patriotic War, the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb continuously functioned in all of the three branches and in 1991 in the independent Republic of Croatia, it received the status of a state and central theatre with which it gained national and artistic significance.

The set professional criteria and the artistic-interpretative achievements in a series of big-scale ensemble performances that are a production characteristic of a large national house were a strong foundation on which the recognisability of the artistic profile of our oldest national theatre institution was built until today. The three artistic branches or the three large artistic ensembles (Drama, Opera and Ballet) functioned simultaneously since 1895, under the same dome and on one stage, but due to the fact of restricted space, they were completely impeded in the natural development of their entire artistic and production potentials. Namely, the Croatian National Theatre had the mentioned second stage only for a short while and all the other attempts were only temporary solutions for performing mostly drama performances.

Throughout its history, the theatre has never departed from what it had deep down in its artistic-repertoire canon - the Croatian language and the Croatian artistic creativity (literary and music works of Croatian authors, both inherited and new, actors, dancers, singers, directors, fine artists and conductors...). At the same time, this strikingly national characteristic does not indicate withdrawing into a shell, but the reverse. The performing of wide-span world literature and a specific stage cosmopolitism and artistic openness not only towards the neighbourhood are crucial characteristics of our theatrical and creative liveliness from its very beginning, both in the repertoire and in the artistic structure of all the ensembles. Artists from different countries and cultures have been coming here, appearing as guests or even staying for good, and often leaving deep traces of their creative energy. When today it is quite ordinary to speak in different languages at rehearsals, it is only a deep reflection of the vitality of a long stage cosmopolitan artistic tradition. At the same time, this very stage continuously until today, hosted numerous prominent foreign ensembles and theatres, as well as many renowned artists.

In 150 years of history, in accordance with the basic determinants in its inaugural legal article, the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb uninterruptedly gave performances all throughout Croatia and countries of which Croatia was a part and went on tour throughout the entire world – from Europe over the USA, all the way to Australia and the Far East – making and developing numerous cultural ties.

Ana Lederer, PhD, General Manager of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb