The Artistic Power of the Ensembles

Formally the marking of 150 years of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb came to an end when the curtain came down on June 16, 2011, after the concert of Croatian composers that was held under the patronage of the Croatian Parliament. From a historical point of view, the first season of continuous work in 1860/1861 was realised in a tense period between two dates - the establishment of the Croatian language on November 24, 1860 (today the Day of Croatian theatre) and August 24, 1861, the date when the Parliament legally formalised the theatre as an institution of national significance. When conceiving our season 2010/2011 we have not been guided with a literal evocation of history, but throughout the programme of all the three artistic ensembles, we have implied key artistic-repertoire determinants in the physiognomy of our theatre. Among other things we have marked its role of the central theatre, as well as the uninterrupted fruitful cooperation with similar institutions in the context of Croatian theatre, with visiting performances of the CNT Osijek, CNT Ivan noble Zajc in Rijeka and CNT Split and, in relation to the historical ties of the beginning of theatre professionalism in 1840, with a visiting performance of the Serbian National Theatre from Novi Sad. Contemporaneity, as a common denominator of the 150th season in the complex sense of its repertoire-artistic meaning – a new written work and/or stage interpretation of a title that has a certain traditional significance with the support of the ensembles and selected production teams - has manifested the creative and production special quality in this theatre moment.
Croatian drama texts were the framework for outlining the Drama: from contemporary authors to reinterpretations of canons; from a regular day of Ivor Martinić’s Mirjana, through the intimacy of Lada Kaštelan, Boban’s unveiling of the complex issues in Zagorka to the peak of the season, the theatrically and culturally yearned for Krleža’s The Glembays. In the case of Zagorka and The Glembays it has been shown that the theatre is a powerful resonance box of our recent social moment that can sometimes be one step ahead of the time it is dealing with. The previous Opera season was also a re-interpretation of particular repertoire canons: operetta (the most famous one, The Bat), Wagner and Verdi (Il Trovatore). Parsifal is undoubtedly an artistic, theatrical and social event of the jubilee season which, among other things, expresses the artistic and professional foundation of the theatre house today. The performances of our Ballet were carried out by a respectable dancing ensemble that easily interprets various music and dancing styles and in the jubilee season it was turned towards expressions of contemporary composers and choreographers; from Mujić’s The Silence of my Murmur, the Triple Bill Ballet Evening to Seletković’s and Müller’s performance Air, a co-production with the Zagreb Music Biennale that was also celebrating its anniversary. I am sure that it is only now that, through the premieres in the 150th season, can one entirely recognise our repertoire-artistic intention; what we wished to accomplish when we were conceiving it - to confirm the national house as a place of live theatre modernity, the way it had always been in the best moments of its past. Of course, the theatre is nothing more but definitely ‘a place of live (theatre) contemporariness‘, which means that it is actually impossible to predict to the very end what will occur in the creative process from the artistic-repertoire idea to the premiere of the production. In that sense, throughout the whole last, artistically impressive season, which between opening nights showed this firmly founded guiding principle, we had to simultaneously plan the following season, under the pressure of constant reassessment - in which direction should the repertoire of this season go? This is a question that is definitely not rhetorical, but has a deep problematic aspect for us, because it most certainly arises from the artistic-aesthetic achievements of the premieres in the 150th season. In accordance with these deliberations, the Drama season 2011/2012 will open with the premiere of L. N. Tolstoy’s War and Peace, a co-production with Pandur Theaters directed by Tomaz Pandur, an artist of international acclaim. For the first time the large Drama ensemble will work with a director whom every project inspires for some new surprising theatrical-aesthetic research. The equally strong male and female drama ensemble, but also the openness towards guest artists of all generations and new stage directors, who will interpret neglected great texts in a modern theatre, cultural and social context, mark the season further on - a co-production with the CNT in Zadar, Goldoni’s The Mistress of the Inn directed by Aleksandra Broz and Shaw’s Pygmalion directed by the young Helena Petković, both of them directing for the first time in our theatre. Vojnović’s Masquerades under the Roofing Tiles at first glance seems to be a specific counterpoint to the Drama opening nights, but our experienced house stage director Ivica Kunčević always wishes to try out something new from the Dubrovnik literature that he knows so well on the stage.After the jubilee season of great music scores, in the Opera 2011/2012 season we have turned to the wide corpus of opera scores that were either never or very rarely performed in Croatia - the never staged Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas will be directed by a young Dutch stage director of a growing reputation Michiel Dijkem and conducted by our well-known guest conductor Hervé Niquet. The anthological Leos Janacek’s opera Jenufa, last time performed in 1946 in Croatia, will be directed by Ozren Prohic. Between these two opening nights the popular comical Donizetti’s classic L’elisir d’amore will be directed by an Italian director Cesare Lievi and conducted by Pietro Rizzo.
We shall open the Ballet 2011/2012 season with The Nutcracker by P. I. Tchaikovsky whose new stage vision will be created by our continually present choreographer of classical ballet titles Derek Deane. After the revival of the popular Vàmos’ Coppélia on Montmartre, the season will be rounded up with An Evening of German Authors. This will be the first encounter with the two choreographers of contemporary expression, Uwe Scholz and Marco Goecke, both for our ensemble and our audience.
I am convinced that the season 2011/2012 will reveal to the audience some new stage interpretations, since it is devised on the artistic strength of the ensembles that always creatively come to grips with new approaches of the authors.

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