Stanac by Jakov Gotovac, the last opera premiere this seasonOpera — 02. July 2023.
The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb will end its rich theatre season with the opening night of opera Stanac by one of the greatest Croatian composers Jakov Gotovac and with Ivo Lipanović as conductor and Hrvoje Korbar as stage director.
The opening night is scheduled for June 30, 2023, in the atrium of the Klovićevi dvori Gallery with the following cast: Stanac is Ozren Bilušić, Đivo is Domagoj Dorotić, Danica is Marija Kuhar Šoša, Vlaho is Damir Klačar, and Miha is Marin Čarga.
The work that Gotovac himself marked as an opera scherzo follows the plot of a renaissance comedy of Dubrovnik written in 1550, that Marin Držić placed during the Carnival during which everything is possible. Created after the Italian renaissance stage masquerades this pastoral by Držić has the local Dubrovnik nuance and the main character is peasant Stanac.
It was a challenge to approach such great authors from a new perspective especially since it is Gotovac's one-act opera that is not often put on the repertoire. The music is bursting with energy, joy and specific humour and we have attempted to transfer all of this into a complete stage performance. The story of the old man Stanac who yearns for eternal youth is also the story of our time – one only needs to look at social media and see how far the obsession with youth, beauty, sexuality extends … And how many necromancers and con artists are there who claim that they can achieve this with a single treatment, a single click, an injection.
And how gullible are we? All these questions come to mind while we deal with Stanac. I do not wish to moralise, but I do like to have a good laugh and this is exactly what Gotovac tells us at the end of the opera, said the stage director Hrvoje Korbar expressing his pleasure that he is doing his first professional and independent opera direction with a „magnificent team, soloists of all generations of the Opera ensemble of the CNT in Zagreb, jolly Opera Chorus and maestro Lipanović and maestro Josip Šego.“
Great synergy is felt at rehearsals, and I believe that the spectators will feel the same at the performances in Klovićevi dvori, concludes Korbar.
Opera Stanac had its world opening night in 1959 at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb and later it was performed together with another one-act opera Dalmaro under the title Jadranska duologija (Adriatic Duology).
With this premiere the Zagreb Opera continues with presenting the best works of Croatian opera literature with which it enriches its repertoire and will continue to do so in the following theatre season.
