Ballet of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb

The first records of dance performances and ballet divertissements by German touring companies date back to the late 18th century, when Karel Carolus Freudenreich, Zagreb’s popular actor, singer and dancer, appeared in the city. His grandson Josip Freudenreich was Zagreb’s first choreographer (a wheel dance in Graničari (Border Guards)) and the author of the first Croatian pantomimes performed during carnival in 1862. In 1859, Pietro Coronelli, a ballet artist, choreographer and dance pedagogue, arrived in Zagreb and opened the first dance school, which became connected with the theatre and developed into the first ballet training studio. The development of ballet as an artistic branch began with the establishment of the Opera. After pantomimes and tableaux vivants, this new branch initially evolved as part of musical performances. The Opera’s director, Ivan noble Zajc, understood the importance of including ballet scenes in opera productions, so in 1876 he engaged Ivana Freisinger, a prima ballerina from Amsterdam. She choreographed the ballet numbers for the world premiere of Nikola Šubić Zrinjski on November 4, 1876, and for the first time in history the theatre leaflet listed both the ballet scenes and the names of the dancers. Therefore, this date is considered the beginning of Croatian ballet, although it remained part of the Opera for many years. Freisinger continued to work as a dancer, choreographer and ballet pedagogue, and created numerous ballet inserts in operas and operettas. Within the Opera, the first full-length ballet in Zagreb, The Fairy Doll by Joseph Bayer, choreographed by the Viennese ballet master Leopold Gundlach, was performed on March 3, 1892, by Drama company members with notable dance talent.

In re-establishing the Opera, Stjepan Miletić organised Ballet as a separate theatre branch, engaged foreign artists (prima ballerina Ema Grondona, ballet master Otokar Bartik, the dancing couple Achille and Aloisia Viscuzi…) and launched a children’s ballet school. The first large-scale ballet premiere, the pantomime in three scenes Pupil’s Love, choreographed by Bartik, did not win audience approval due to its German subject matter, unlike Delibes’s Coppélia, with Grondona in the leading role. The ballet At the Plitvice Lakes, composed by Srećko Albini, is considered the first Croatian ballet premiere, based on Miletić’s concept and choreographed by Grondona.

With the annulment of the Opera in 1902, Ballet again faded and had no independent programme for almost twenty years, apart from ballet inserts in operas after the Opera’s revival in 1909. Ballet experienced a true revival only after 1921, when Margareta Froman—prima ballerina of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre and a member of Diaghilev’s company—was engaged, together with her brothers, the soloist dancers Maximilian and Valentin, and the set designer Pavel. Laying strong foundations for Croatian ballet culture, Froman’s work marked three decades of ballet history. The ensemble she led was expanded with several Russian dancers who also arrived after touring, while among local ballet artists were names that would become prominent: Draga Špoljarić, Paula Hudi, Zlata Lanović, Mia Čorak and Oskar Harmoš. Creating an independent ballet segment, M. Froman based it on Diaghilev’s repertoire and on Russian works, including, for example, Acts II and IV of Swan Lake and excerpts from The Nutcracker by P. I. Tchaikovsky, Scheherazade by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, Petrushka by I. Stravinsky and Carnival by R. Schumann.

In the context of creating a national musical expression in the 1930s, Froman also grounded the repertoire in Croatian works. She choreographed Svatovac by K. Baranović in 1922, as well as the premiere of the landmark ballet The Gingerbread Heart by Baranović in 1924, The Flowers of Little Ida in 1925, The Shadows by Božidar Širola in 1923 and Figurines by Lujo Šafranek Kavić. From 1927 she worked in Belgrade and returned to Zagreb in 1934, when she stopped dancing and thereafter devoted herself exclusively to choreography and pedagogy. In addition, she successfully directed some thirty operas, among them the premiere of Gotovac’s Ero the Joker in 1935, in which she staged the famous wheel dance.

In 1930 she choreographed the pantomime ballet with singing The Gold by Boris Papandopulo, one of the first younger composers to write ballets and begin a long-term collaboration with the Ballet. His works also include The Grand-Hotel (1967), The Three Cavaliers of Miss Melanija (1976) and Kraljevo (1990). Froman also opened a ballet school attended by Mia Čorak, the future world-famous ballerina known as Mia Slavenska.

The first integral performance of Swan Lake, choreographed and directed by M. Froman, was staged in 1940. After that, she continued to work as a choreographer, and one of her most significant productions was Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet in 1948.

Between 1941 and 1953, the Ballet was led by the dancing couple Ana Roje and Oskar Harmoš. From 1951 to 1955, the Ballet was headed by Milorad Jovanović, who choreographed Stravinsky’s Apollo and Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini. Other important works included The Chinese Story, The Miraculous Mandarin and The Legend of Ohrid.

In 1965, the Ballet was finally separated from the Opera and became an independent artistic branch. Since then, it has developed a rich and diverse repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary works.

Foreign dancers, choreographers and pedagogues are frequent guests of the Ballet, and since the 1930s Croatian ballet artists have performed and won recognition on major world ballet stages.