On the occasion of its 70th anniversary, one of the biggest and most significant Croatian festivals, and one of the oldest European ones too – the Dubrovnik Summer Festival – is coming to Zagreb in September, with the support of the Zagreb Tourist Board!
The culture institutions and artists of Zagreb have for decades been indispensable co-creators of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival’s programmes, as well as dear guests of the Festival and Dubrovnik over the summer. Thus, on the Festival’s grand anniversary, this important partnership will be celebrated by the Dubrovnik Summer Festival coming to Zagreb. A varied programme of this pop-up edition of the largest Croatian festival will present the Zagreb audiences and their guests with the best of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival’s theatre and music productions, the work of primarily domestic, Croatian and Dubrovnik, artists.
THE MUSIC OF DUBROVNIK SUMMER VILLAS
Bojan Čičić, violin; Dmitry Sinkovsky, violin; Hiwote Tadesse, viola; Lea Sušanj Lujo, cello; Stjepan Nodilo, Manuela Maria Mitterer, classical oboe; Hermann Ebner, Atay Bagci, classical horn; Izidor Erazem Grafenauer, theorbo; Tomislav Fačini, harpsichord
Sorkočević, I. M. Jarnović
This summer in the Rector’s Palace atrium, the Dubrovnik audiences enjoyed The Music of Dubrovnik Summer Villas, performed by the brilliant soloists Bojan Čičić and Dmitry Sinkovsky on violins, and Tomislav Fačini on harpsichord who were joined by the excellent Elene Davidova, Hiwote Tadesse, Fran Petrač, Lea Sušanj Lujo, Stjepan Nodilo, Manuela Maria Mitterer, Hermann Ebner, Atay Bağcı and Izidor Erazem Grafenauer. On 6 September, this unique programme will present five Sorkočević symphonies, along with Händel and Vivaldi pieces and the first modern performance of Ivan Jarnović's Concerto Favori to Zagreb audiences. The concert dazzled the Festival crowd in Dubrovnik, with applause following every composition and the musicians deservedly receiving ovations at the end of the concert. Conversely, the aforementioned talented musicians recorded seven Sorkočević symphonies earlier this year, the album entitled Sorkočević 7 published by the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, with the support of the Caboga Stiftung Foundation.
* Admission to the concert is free with tickets previously picked up at the Tourist Information Center on Ban Jelacic Square 6 (passage Harmica). Tickets are available from September 3rd.
IVAN JOSIP SKENDER composer and conductor
HRVOJE KORBAR director
The Little Prince saw numerous film, theatre and music adaptations, earning an almost mythical status in world literature. In this adaptation of The Little Prince, the magic is in the music through which first the Rector’s Palace and now the Zagreb Puppet Theatre transform into the desert and space, and through which one of the book’s core messages – that of seeing the unseen, that which is barely noticeable or merely indicated, of exercising the imagination – is imparted on the young audiences. Encouraged by the last year’s successful children’s programme, the Dubrovnik Summer Festival put on, for its anniversary edition, the premiere musical theatre piece The Little Prince, based on the beloved novella of the celebrated French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, directed by Hrvoje Korbar with composer and conductor Ivan Josip Skender. The ensemble consists of Livio Badurina (the Pilot / Grown-ups), Rok Juričić (the Little Prince) and Marija Kuhar Šoša (the Rose / the Fox / the Snake). The set and costumes are designed by Zdravka Ivandija Kirigin.
* Tickets at a price of 20 kuna are available on the website of the Zagreb Puppet Theatre.
DARIO HARJAČEK director
Under the Balconies is a play based on a selection of motifs from the eponymous Ranko Marinković short story collection, directed by Dario Harjaček and with dramaturgy by Vedrana Klepica. At the 69th Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the actress Nataša Kopeč won the prestigious Orlando Award for her outstanding performance in the play as Oliva! As was the case last summer, the audiences of the 70th Festival recognized and resonated with Marinković’s sharp social commentary and the play’s astounding modernity, which stems partly from the narrative’s striking correspondence to the current political, social and economic moment. It is no surprise that roaring applause and enthusiastic cheers reverberated through the University of Dubrovnik Campus Park where the play was put on, rewarding the marvellous Festival Drama Ensemble who portrayed Marinković’s complex characters perfectly, reaching new artistic heights in their performances. The brilliant Ensemble included actors Marko Makovčić, Doris Šarić Kukuljica, Helena Buljan, Maro Martinović, Jerko Marčić who replaced Dado Ćosić as Mićel, Nikša Butijer, Dušan Gojić, Ugo Korani, Livio Badurina, Nataša Kopeč, Linda Begonja, Jelena Miholjević, Ema Pralas, Josip Brakus, Marin Klišmanić and Ivan Pašalić. Vesna Režić did the set design, Doris Kristić the costumes, Nenad Sinkauz the music, while the lighting design for the play was done by Elvis Butković.
* Tickets at a price of 70 kuna are available on the website of the Zagreb Youth Theatre.
Exhibition opening
Marko Ercegović: FESTIVAL BACKSTAGE
The Festival Backstage exhibition by photographer Marko Ercegović is dedicated to the ‘invisible’ Festival-making process. The exhibition was formally opened on 17 August in the Sponza Palace in Dubrovnik, and exactly a month later it will be presented to the Zagreb audience.
As one of the official photographers for the Dubrovnik Summer Festival and over the course of his professional career, Marko Ercegović made his mark in theatre photography. Although he usually takes phenomenal photos of actors amid performances on the stage, this summer he pointed his camera behind it as well, to the costume designers, manual workers, technicians, directors and actors right before or just after their plays. Along with the backstage, he also captured moments in the Festival palace, collecting in his photo-archives moments with which the general public is usually not familiar. “The idea was to capture the 70th anniversary of the Festival in a way that, in addition to the standard backstage photography, the workers of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival can receive equal attention in the documenting the process of the Festival’s production. It is to them that this exhibition is dedicated – a community that has, despite the overwhelming tourism industry, preserved the knowledge of how to set up a stage or audience seating arrangements, of creating costumes or sets, organising and managing the arrival and rehearsals of an entire philharmonic orchestra or ten theatre companies, and that has at the same time preserved the knowledge, that has been passed down for three generations, on how to successfully steer a truck loaded with construction material through the crowded Stradun in the middle of the scorching Dubrovnik summer. This kind of knowledge is what makes an anniversary like this possible,” writes Ercegović about the exhibition.
* Entrance is free. The exhibition is open until September 26th.
AVISHAI COHEN TRIO
The numerous Festival audience enjoyed a world-class jazz programme with the acclaimed Avishai Cohen trio who performed on the stunning Revelin Fort terrace, sponsored by Mastercard. The jazz masters will hold a concert for the Zagreb audience too, as part of the “Dubrovnik Summer Festival in Zagreb” programme, on 25 September 2019 in the Zagreb Academy of Music’s Blagoje Bersa Concert Hall.
The world-class jazz masters thrilled the crowd with their energetic and impressive performance of primarily their latest music from the Arvoles album; a music treat for which the critics have sung praises, an album that “the more you listen, the more you love.” Critics have said that Cohen’s performances are “unique and incomparable, a real privilege for the lucky concertgoers” while DownBeat magazine called Cohen a “jazz visionary of global proportions.” Cohen found the perfect musical combination in his trio and together they recorded three studio albums: Gently Disturbed, From Darkness, and the just released Arvoles, from June 2019, which offers listeners a “perplexing, mystic and magical, yet top-tier” sound which combines and takes inspiration from sundry genres, such as classical music and jazz, bebop and hardbop, swing, hip-hop, and African-Caribbean rhythms. Davor Hrvoj rated the trio’s Dubrovnik debut a first-class musical event “which has mesmerized the large audience,” saying that Cohen’s music “has a healing power for those who surrender to it completely.”
* Tickets at a price of 180 kuna are available on the website ulaznice.hr
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