In the work of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), two genres are strongly intertwined, symphonic and solo song. During his lifetime, Mahler was famous primarily as a great conductor at the Vienna Court Opera and an interpreter of operatic works by Wagner, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. As a composer, he did not experience much recognition and success, and his works only gained recognition after his death, and in the second half of the 20th century he was still one of the most performed composers today. His involvement in composition was limited - he wrote mainly during the summer break at the opera, and many of his works were created in a small hut on Lake Attersee, where he would stay every summer from 1893. His first symphonies and songs, however, were created earlier, in a rich first creative period, when he was delighted with the collection of folk songs The boy's magic horn (the poems were collected and published from 1805 to 1808 by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentao), which would have a lasting influence on his work. Mahler would later name his cycle of songs with orchestra, published in 1905, after this collection. Some of these songs are also intertwined with the complex themes of his symphonies. And his first important cycle of songs, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a traveling child), is associated with this collection. Mahler writes the lyrics himself, but is inspired by poetry The boy's magic horn. The cycle is based on his unrequited love for the soprano Johanna Richter, whom he met while conducting in Kassel. The songs tell of a young scholar, an apprentice, who experiences love, but it ends unhappily, and he thinks about ending his young life. In the cycle, he uses the technique of progressive tonality. Each song begins and ends in a different tonality, thus creating a sense of tension, uncertainty, but also a continuous flow, a connection between the songs that depict the path and fate of an unhappy young man. In the first song, he sings about how his sweetheart got married, and although the world is beautiful, his dreams are sad; the second song is suddenly happy – the little boy talks about the beauty of nature, birdsong and dew on the grass, but does not forget that his love has gone with another. Despair returns in the third song, in which he dreams of a shiny knife with which to end his days, the dark D minor moves to an even darker E flat minor. The last song brings a solution – a lyrical melody, resembling a chorale, speaks of the beauty of blue eyes that bring him so much sadness, but suddenly, when he lies down under a linden tree whose flowers fall on him, he realizes that he can live on.
Kajkavian poetry inspired the most important and famous cycle of poems Krešimir Baranović (1894-1975), From my hills. Born in Šibenik, Krešimir Baranović was educated in Zagreb, and then in Vienna and Berlin. As a composer, he established himself at the famous "Historical Concert" in 1916 at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, as one of the generation of modernists (with Dora Pejačević, Franjo Dugan, Božidar Širol, Svetislav Stančić and Antun Dobronić), each of whom would set out on his own stylistic path; Baranović in the direction of the national style, writing a ballet shortly afterwards Licitar heart with which he would firmly establish himself as one of the most important Croatian composers of that time. Cycle From my hills was published in 1925, two years after the posthumous publication of the same-named collection of poems Fran Galović (1887-1914). The poetry of this gifted, prematurely deceased Croatian modernist, reaches its zenith in the dialectal poetry of this collection, addressing the motifs of death, farewell, nostalgia, and transience, coinciding with the themes of European poets of the time, who, in combination with dialectal expression, motifs of the homeland and nostalgia, achieve a special aesthetic quality. The expression of the dithyramb in collision with the tone of tragedy and the motifs of death and transience, elicit from Baranović a series of striking musical images, which simultaneously gives the baritone voice a tone of fervor and resignation, amusement and peace, with which he describes the fate of the little people of the Drava countryside. The first of three poems, Greetings, speaks of the fear of something unspeakable, that awaits, and the fear disappears only when the "greeting" bell rings. The song Border It tells of a merry fellow who enjoys the joys of life, which ultimately lead him to his end, and death does not spare even Godfather Martin in the last poem of the cycle, who has been drinking water his entire life.
Cavalleria rusticana Pietro Mascagni (1963-1945) is the first example of verismo in opera, a powerful musical response to the harsh tragedy of the lives of the small people of the countryside and provinces, depicted in Giovanni Verga's play, set in the Sicilian countryside. Mascagni wrote the opera after reading a competition notice from the publisher Sonzogno, who had announced a competition for one-act plays in 1888. Mascagni commissioned the libretto from Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and, having finished writing by May of the following year, won the competition. Its premiere at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, together with two other one-act plays that had been submitted, caused a sensation and remained permanently in the repertoire.
Already prelude to the opera, with the dramatic ups and downs of the orchestra and strong crescendos, in which the gentle melody of the flute and the harp also intervenes, gives a hint of the plot, in which everything will unfold on Easter morning - the young Santuzza, who was seduced by Turiddu, will find out that Turiddu cheated on her with Lola, the girl he loved before her, who is now married to Alfio. When Alfio returns, Santuzza reveals their relationship to him in despair, and in a duel - which, although not shown on stage, is the culmination of this short opera, whose title translates as "village chivalry" - Alfio kills Turiddu, leaving a bitter taste and despair not only for the main protagonists, but also for the entire village. The prelude is not conventional - even though it is built on the themes of the opera, in the middle of the prelude the backstage aria of Turiddu intervenes and then the siciliana, which introduces in medias res, the narrow morning and the drama of the Sicilian village.
Opera Pagliacci Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919) to the composer's libretto, was indirectly inspired by the success Rustic cavalry, when Sonzogno announced another competition, which encouraged Leoncavallo to compose a new one-act play, which would achieve the same success as Cavalleria, with whom it is customarily performed in pairs almost from the first days until today. The opera is conceived as a play within a play, where art and reality coincide and eventually intertwine. All this will be hinted at - instead of an overture - by a dark, cynical one Prolog (sung by the hunchback Tonio, one of the actors of the traveling troupe in the play), which Leoncavallo added to the opera when he learned that the baritone Victor Maurel (the famous first interpreter of Falstaff and Iago in Verdi's last operas) would sing at the premiere: a traveling troupe of actors, clowns, led by Canio, come to a small village to put on a play in the evening. Canio learns that his wife Nedda is cheating on him, when her affair with a young local man is exposed by the jealous and ugly Tonio. In a jealous rage that evening at the play, when he is supposed to play the role of a deceived husband, Canio kills Colombina/Nedda on stage, and the audience realizes in horror that the murder was real. When her lover from the audience rushes to help her, he kills him too.
Uzlet Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) after great success Nabucco In 1842 it was constant, reaching one of the highest peaks in the operas of the so-called. Latin trilogies, Rigoletta, Troubadour i La Traviata, three masterpieces, each colored with a special musical ink and marked by strong characters at their center: Rigoletto is a dark drama set at night, centered on a hunchback, a madman at the debauched court of the Duke of Mantua, who leads a secret life, has an innocent daughter whom no one knows about, but who falls into the Duke's hands. From being the Duke's accomplice, Rigoletto now becomes his victim and begs the courtiers to spare his daughter. In Troubadour An unusual story emerges that connects the past and the present, the terrible fate of the gypsy child, who is replaced by a young count, who grew up believing that the gypsy Manrico is his love, the noblewoman Leonora, who is wanted by Count Luna, unaware that his rival and enemy, the troubadour Manrico, is his long-lost brother. The last opera is colored with a touch of tragedy and French perfume, about the blasé company of Violetta, a courtesan who falls in love with a young Provençal nobleman. Their love will be prevented by his father, Germont, who persuades Violetta to renounce Alfredo, for the sake of his family's honor and his sister's marriage. The baritone roles in these operas belong to the canon of Verdi's repertoire, and we hear the three most important arias - Giorgio Germont's aria From the Provence of the sea, the sun (Provencal sea, soil), from Act 2 La Traviata, in which he sings to his son, trying to restore his love for Provence and draw him away from Violetta. Count Luna's aria Tutto é deserto... Il balen del suo sorriso (Everything is abandoned... The flash of her smile) from Act 2 Troubadour, in which, intending to abduct Leonora, who has retired to a convent, he sings of his love for her. Rigoletto's monologue Cortiggiani, vil razza dannata (Courtiers, vile damned bastards), from Act 2, is an epic scene set in just a few minutes, in which Rigoletto, having lost his daughter, threatens the courtiers who kidnapped her and handed her over to the Duke, but he is powerless and his melody turns into a plea – each fragment of the aria follows the development of Rigoletto's psychological states: the melody becomes fragmented, and Rigoletto's combativeness turns into a prayer in one of Verdi's most moving fragments, originally accompanied by a solo cello and English horn.
Zrinka Matić
Ljubomir Puškarić, baritone, was born in Zagreb, where he began his primary music and singing education in 2004. He attended private lessons with Darija Hreljanović, then with Vitomir Marof, the national champion of the Croatian National Theatre, and in addition to the above, he attended the Pavle Markovac Conservatory in the class of Prof. Šurina, after which he studied singing at the Zagreb Academy of Music in the class of Prof. Vlatka Oršanić. In the summer of 2008, he received a scholarship to Indiana University in Bloomington, where he enrolled in the Jacobs School of Music (Prof. Robert Harrison), a famous American music academy that has been at the top of the world in higher music education for decades.
Even before leaving for the USA, Puškarić made his first solo appearances, singing minor and middle roles in 2006 in various productions of the Zagreb Opera, and in October 2007 he performed for the first time in the leading role, as Figaro in The Barber of Seville G. Rossini. He began his engagements in foreign opera houses while studying in the USA, more precisely in Cincinnati in 2009, where he spent two months in a program for young singers. Just one week after graduating, he performed in three concerts Carmine Burane Orff with the famous Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall in Cleveland. He soon performed in two concerts at the Cincinnati May Festival under the direction of renowned American conductor James Conlon. In June 2010, he won first prize at the International Competition Ondine Otto in Maribor. In the same year he guest-starred at the Seattle Opera, playing the role of Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor G. Donizetti, and spent the fall of 2011 engaged at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he performed under the direction of Emmanuel Villaume and Sir Andrew Davis. This was followed by invitations to guest appearances on European stages, first at the Hamburg State Opera (Valentin), and then at the Rome Opera (Paolo Orsini).
Since returning from his training at the Zagreb Opera, he has performed in numerous baritone roles, and since May 2015 he has become a member of the ensemble of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, and in May 2016 he was promoted to the rank of Opera Master. To date, he has performed more than 30 mainly leading baritone roles at the Zagreb Croatian National Theatre, the latest in a series of title roles in operas Nabucco i Rigoletto. Since his return from the USA, he has begun a collaboration with the remaining Croatian opera theatres, which he continues to this day, primarily with the Croatian National Theatre in Split, where he received an award at the beginning of May this year. Ante Marusic for the best opera performance in the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons. He has been actively performing as a soloist with the Zagreb Philharmonic and the Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra for more than 10 years, and since 2015 he has begun a series of significant recordings. Along with the song cycle From my hills K. Baranović in the production of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, he also interpreted the baritone part in Miss Maruliani F. Parać, and then came the recordings of our most famous operas produced by HRT. He first appeared in the title role Nikola Šubić Zrinjski, and then as Kocelin in Porin under the direction of Ivo Lipanović and Pavle Dešpalj. He also collaborated on recordings with the Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc in Rijeka, with whom he recorded the opera for the German CPO Return of the Sailor Franz von Suppé with the role of Pietro. Three important recordings for Bayerische Rundfunk under the direction of Ivan Repušić should certainly be added to the mentioned releases. First Requiem M. Duruflea 2017, then Ero from the other world 2019, and Glagolitic Requiem Igor Kuljerić at the beginning of 2020, the latter, in addition to the award Porin won the most prestigious international award, Music Oscar for the best album in the category of classical music works with choir.
He is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, including: Ante Marusic at the Split Croatian National Theatre, Young Musician of the Year (Zagreb Philharmonic), Vladimir Ruždjak (CNC Zagreb), milka trnina (HDGU), Croatian Actors' Guild Award (for the role of the Marquis Posa in Verdi's Don CarlIn June 2024, he received the state award Vladimir Nazor for the interpretation of Rigoletto in the Zagreb Opera production in 2023
Darijan Ivezic He was born in 1990 in Novska, where he graduated from the Secondary Music School (piano major in 2007 and theory major in 2009). In 2014, he completed his conducting studies at the Zagreb Academy of Music in the class of Uroš Lajovic.
During his studies, he received the Rector's Award in 2010 (for his author's project DuLuM) and the Dean's Award in 2012 (as an assistant conductor in the inter-academic production of Bizet's Carmen). In 2013, as part of the Zagreb Music Biennale, he conducted an opera performance Nightingale Igor Stravinsky. Since 2016, he has continued his collaboration (until 2019) with the Academy of Music, as a title assistant at the III. Department of Conducting, Harp and Percussion, where in March 2020 he also premiered an inter-academic production of the opera Cinderella Jules Massenet as conductor. Since 2022, he has been the music director and conductor of the Croatian Opera Academy in Varaždin, where he has been producing operas for the first season. The Feast of Figaro.
Since 2013, he has been a member of the Opera of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, where he has worked as the Artistic Director of the Role Studies since 2015. As an assistant conductor, he has created 10 titles at the Croatian National Theatre, such as the operas Sicilian Vespers, Don Carlo, Madama Butterfly i Turandot, concert performance Gurre-Lieder Arnold Schönberg and others. He conducted performances of operas Don Pasquale, Mimi, Equinox, The Feast of Figaro, Countess Gretel, Dido and Aeneas, Così fan tutte. As a pianist and accompanist, he is a regular collaborator of vocal soloists such as Rebeka Lokar, Tomislav Mužek, Dunja Vejzović, Ljubomir Puškarić, Evelin Novak, Matija Meić and others. As an assistant conductor, he has collaborated with many conductors, such as Nikša Bareza, Ivan Repušić, Loris Voltolini and the late Elio Boncompagni. Since September 2019, he has been a member of the Munich Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, where he will make his German conducting debut in March 2021. During his work in Munich, he has carried out several projects with the Bavarian Radio ensembles, namely with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester and the BR Zbor, as an assistant conductor and language assistant.
As an arranger and conductor, he also collaborates with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, and the Croatian Radio and Television Choir, with whom he made his debut in December 2019. He participated in international competitions in Liège in 2017 and Belgrade in 2019, where he won the Special Award for the best performance of an opera aria.
He is the artistic director and conductor of two ensembles: the vocal ensemble Project Lazarus (performs in Rome, Vienna, Venice, Varaždin, Zadar, Hvar, Zagreb, etc.), chamber operas Opera bb (performs two operetta premieres: Merry widow 2017.i Bat 2019.) With the ensemble Col legno From 2014 to 2018, he performed at many festivals in Zagreb and Croatia.
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G. Mahler - Songs of a traveling journeyman / Songs of a traveling journeyman
K. Baranović - From my hills
P. Mascagni - Cavalleria rusticana, Prelude to the opera (piano)
R. Leoncavallo - Pagliacci, Prologue
G. Verdi - Arias from the Latin Trilogy
