The beginnings of the creation of the Croatian national opera repertoire - The Croatian national historical opera trilogy (Mislav, Ban Leget, Nikola Šubić Zrinjski) by Ivan von Zajc : [sažetak doktorskog rada]

Abstract

Zajc’s Croatian national opera trilogy Mislav (1870), Ban Leget (1872) and Nikola Šubić Zrinjski (1876) was composed in a sequence and by that time Zajc had already had compositional experience in operas, acquired in both his early and intensive operatic periods. After a series of operett as, the composition of a historic opera with national elements was a conditio sine qua non, especially after Zajc’s arrival in Zagreb from Vienna which was arranged with Croatian intellectuals in 1870. That same year, the premiere of the opera Mislav on 2 October, one decade after the establishment of the Croatian Drama (1860), i.e. Croatian National Theatre (1861) and twenty years after the completion of the then still unperformed opera Porin (1847 – 1851) by Lisinski, the work of Zagreb’s permanent opera as well as Zajc’s forty years of musical activity in Zagreb commenced. Moreover, the aforementioned operas, together with Lisinski’s Love and Malice, were, in the Croatian cultural and historical perspective of that time, declared as the only »real« Croatian national operas yet composed and performed (except Porin, which was performed in 1897). Despite their uneven quality and their contemporary and subsequent success (audience reception), our att ention was att racted by the questions pertaining to the competence of the author who had to make, upon arrival, all the necessary assumptions for creating the fi rst publicly performed national opera. Firstly, the musical ensemble and education were to be established, the nurturing of the players and the education of the singers. In accordance with inherited predispositions, cultural and family environment (infl uence of his musician father), music education and specialization (Rijeka, Milan), the author’s artistic growth and formation in diverse environments (Rijeka, Milan, Vienna, Zagreb), Zajc managed to establish a creative dialogue in the new environment in the context of the time. One could say that the endeavours of Zagreb’s patriots for the formation of national (musical) culture after the period of Bach’s absolutism coincided with (private and artistic) circumstances which brought Zajc to Zagreb. Zajc came in the period between neoabsolutism and the rule of Héderváry (from 1883). While the operas Mislav and Ban Leget were composed during the reigns of banus Levin Rauch (Mislav) and Antun Vakanović (Ban Leget), both guided by aggressive Hungarian politics, the opera Nikola Šubić Zrinjski was created during the reign of