News

On July 4, 2025, the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb granted the annual awards for the best artistic achievements in Drama, Opera and Ballet in the 2024/2025 season at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. This year's laureates in Drama are Ksenija Marinković and the ensemble of Crime and Punishment, Valentina Fijačko Kobić and Ivica Čikeš are the laureates in Opera, and Natalia Kosovac and Mattia Bacon in Ballet. The general manager of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, Dr. Iva Hraste Sočo, ceremoniously presented the awards to the distinguished artists and congratulated them on their artistic contribution.

DRAMA

The judging committee for the annual awards of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb for Drama, consisting of: president Helena Buljan and members Željka Turčinović and Martina Petranović, PhD, decided that the recipient of the Mila Dimitrijević Award for the best acting achievement in the 2024/2025 theatre season is Ksenija Marinković for the role of the Storyteller/Annie in the play The Years of Annie Ernaux, directed by Jovana Tomić and produced by the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.

A special dramatic emphasis is put on the relationship between mother and daughter in different periods of the mother's turbulent life, and the predominant means of communication is confessional discourse, which in Ksenija Marinković's interpretation is precise, convincing and self-critical, defining her as the central figure of the play, as a guide to different generations of women who are united by her personality, awakening in them empathy and solidarity for the female gender, as stated in the explication of the judging committee.

The jury awarded the Mila Dimitrijević award for the best acting achievement in the theatre season to the entire ensemble of performance Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, directed by Jernej Lorenci. The ensemble of Crime and Punishment presents the director's concept on the stage of the Croatian National Theatre with full confidence and conviction. With an almost hypnotically dedicated recitation of Dostoevsky's semantically dense and emotionally charged sentences, they express numerous registers of the hero's intellectual, moral and emotional suffering, with instrumental playing and singing, in which Iva Jerković Oreški particularly stands out interpretatively and emotionally, participating in the broader transformation of the soundscape into an agile and penetrating performative layer, with a physically emphasized and demanding acting - especially for the two young actors, but also for all the others. This several-hours long performance requires enormous strength and concentration from the acting ensemble, draws the audience into Dostoevsky and Lorenzi's somnambulist section of social madness and individual conscience, as written in the explanation.

OPERA

The Opera's judging committee, consisting of president Zrinka Matić and members Dr. Zdenka Weber and Dr. Hana Breko, decided that the Marijana Radev Award of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb for the 2024/2025 season be awarded to Valentina Fijačko Kobić for the title role in Antonín Dvořák's opera Rusalka. The Zagreb interpreters shone in the performance of Rusalka, especially Valentina Fijačko Kobić, whose appearance showed the beauty and

grandeur of the title role and illuminated the entire music of the opera with warm light. We gained a creation that is complete, mature, crafted in every detail, that exudes security and peace, and also the ease of experiencing and bringing the role to life at that moment, on stage, which rests on perfect command of the voice and all technical aspects of the role, as emphasised in the explication.

The Vladimir Ruždjak award, according to the decision of the judging committee is awarded to Ivica Čikeš for three roles: Holofernes in Judita by Frano Parać, Sarastro in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute and Landlord Marko in Ero the Joker by Jakov Gotovac. The engagement of the national principal, bass Ivica Čikeš in the Opera of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb two seasons ago strengthened the constellation of the solo ensemble, bringing to its centre a voice of strong gravity, which colours every performance with vibrant sonority. Clean, clear, without unnecessary mannerisms, both simple and authoritative in singing, a voice that in itself gives authority to the roles of rulers, whether secular like Holofernes or Landlord Marko, or spiritual like Sarastro, Ivica Čikeš interprets and sings powerful characters that seem to be tailored to his voice, states the explanation.

BALLET

The judging committee for the annual awards in Ballet, consisting of Mateja Pučko Petković and Dubravko Kolšek, members, and Prof. Dr. Svebor Sečak, president, decided that the recipient of the Ana Roje Award is Natalia Kosovac for the role of Vivette in ballet L'Arlesienne by Georges Bizet, choreographed by Roland Petit, as well as for a number of leading roles in the current repertoire of the Ballet of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. She has grown into a mature ballet artist who carries a large part of both the classical and contemporary repertoire. In the specific, idiosyncratic choreography of L'Arlesienne by Roland Petit, she performed exceptionally well in the role of Vivette and demonstrated her interpretative and technical abilities in this historical choreography of late modernism, conjuring up the purity and fragility of the character she interpreted, as well as the entire range of emotions of a girl in love, her disappointment and inability to understand the fascination of her loved one with the illusion of a vision of L'Arlesienne that lives only in his imagination and leads to the tragic end. Natalia Kosovac, as a ballet artist, continuously demonstrates versatility and dedication to her profession, and this award is a recognition of her entire work in the Ballet of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.

The annual Oskar Harmoš Award is granted to Mattia Baccon for the title role in ballet Petrushka by Igor Stravinsky, choreographed by Edward Clug, as well as for the demonstrated interpretative abilities in the entire repertoire of the Ballet of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. Along with the established soloists of the Zagreb Ballet, a new generation of young and promising dancers has emerged, coming from all over the world. Among them, Mattia Baccon stood out with his striking interpretations of various roles, of which Petrushka holds a special place. He embodied a puppet that can come to life and feel in this grotesque and fantastic ballet, expressing the hypersensitivity and diversity of this character, which also corresponds to today's alienation of sensitive and different, misunderstood individuals. We hope that this award will be an incentive for his further artistic development explained the judging committee.