Ballet co-production Broken Relationships of the CNT in Zagreb and the Music Biennale Zagreb opened the 33rd Music Biennale ZagrebBallet — 28. March 2025.
The world opening night of Broken Relationships, a co-production of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb and the Music Biennale Zagreb, opened the 33rd edition of the MBZ on April 5, 2025.
In the international public open call, artists were asked to send their work on the topic of broken relationships; the Ballet of the CNT in Zagreb selected three choreographers and the Music Biennale Zagreb invited three composers.
The contemporary composer Ivan Končić is the author of ballet Flicker Out choreographed by two authors Pett Clausen-Knight, the principal of the Ballet of the CNT in Takuya Sumitomo choreographed the ballet titled Black Puzzle – Still, I Rise to the music of Veronika Reutz Drobnić and the title of the third work is The Most Familiar Stranger choreographed by Alessandro Giaquinto to the music of the Polish composer Rafał Rytersky. The conductor of ballet Black Puzzle – Still, I Rise and The Most Familiar Stranger was Ivan Josip Skender.
The moment in which a new work is becoming alive is always filled with energy. When music and choreography are created together, when the composer and the choreographer join their creativity, energy multiplies and expands. When this is complemented by the dancers' contribution who, in the creative process, are not only performers but also a part of the collective intelligence, a magnificent flow of ideas and emotions is created. The encounter of choreographers and the composers is never simple. Different characters and sensitivities must find a point of encounter, a joint path, said the director of the Ballet of the CNT in Zagreb Massimiliano Volpini, pointing out how the most interesting part of such a project is that at the beginning you are unaware where it will take you and the final result is a revelation for everyone. This is why I believe that such projects are significant for the theatre because the energy that is released in such encounters is transferred to all artists involved in the project and I am convinced also to the audience that can perceive their true and unrestrained strength, concluded Volpini.
Extracting inspiration from the concept of the internationally recognised symbol of Zagreb the Museum of Broken Relationships, the 33rd edition of the MBZ has founded its thematic vision on the idea of broken relationships and dedicated the entire event to the research of proportions and nuances of diverse artistic interpretations of the same concept.
Both at the breaking point and at the encounter, the goal is to find once again space for negotiations, adaptation and compromise, the three preconditions not only for art, but for every new love.
