The foundation of every singer's repertoire, the arietta My dear, well which is attributed Giuseppe Giordani (1751–1798), is an example of the Neapolitan school aria with which the history of modern opera begins. With composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti, Pergolesi, Piccinni, Cimarosa or Paisiello, in the early 18th century its works crystallized the distinction between genres opera series i opera buffaScarlatti was the creator of the so-called from the beginning arias, and also introduced a type of shorter arias, the so-called cavatina (cavatina), which will later appear as one of the sections of the large belcanto arias in the early 19th century. Giordani studied with Cimarosa and Zingarelli, under whom Vincenzo Bellini, Saverio Mercadante and a number of other important composers later studied. belcanto style. Popular aria My dear, well, written in 1783, was attributed to him until recently, but more recently new discoveries have shown that it was more likely composed by his older brother, Tommaso Giordani (c. 1730–1806), or even their father Giuseppe Giordani Sr., both also members of the Neapolitan opera school. It is composed in a melodious, gallant style and is one of the most famous arias of the so-called "old Italians", as the collection of anthological arias from the 17th and 18th centuries published in the Schirmer edition, which serves as the basis for the education of singers, is popularly called.

This collection also includes an aria O my sweet ardor Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787), an 18th-century opera reformer who wanted to return opera to its origins, rid it of complicated, "empty" embellishments and subordination to singers, and make it dramatically convincing. The aria appears in opera Paris and Helen (Paride and Elena) from 1770, created eight years after Orpheus and Eurydice, in which Gluck implements his new ideas. In the aria O my sweet ardor, Elena expresses her longing and love for Paris, recognizing her feelings, even though she knows she must not give in to that love.

A series of ariettas Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835) belongs to another famous collection of "old Italians", Ancient arias Alessandro Parisotti. Although he does not technically belong to the “old” Italians of the 17th and 18th centuries, Bellini’s melodies and belcanto tradition, as well as his education at the Conservatory in Naples, connect him directly with Alessandro Scarlatti and his school. Ariette The fervent desire, Dolente immagine di Fille mia, Libra moon, which turns silver i malincony, gentile nymph, published in the Parisotti collection, belong to Bellini's Chamber compositions (Chamber pieces), a collection of fifteen ariettas and romances, canzoncina i ballad for voice and piano written during his youthful period in Naples and Milan, in the 19s, before leaving for Paris. Their style is singable, gentle and generally simple, sometimes showing – most often in rhythmic patterns – influences from the folklore of Bellini's native Sicily.

The first of the three masters bel canto, Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868), after laying the foundations of 19th-century Italian opera by writing 39 titles (among which are famous works such as Barber of Seville, Cinderella or William Tell), he stops composing opera. It is precisely William Tell was his last opera, composed in 1829 at the age of 37. He lived for another forty years, and although he no longer composed operas, music remained a part of his life. In Paris, he ran a famous salon (first with his first wife, the famous singer Isabella Colbran, and later, in the 1950s and 1960s, with his second wife, Olympe Pélissier), which hosted the most famous musicians of the time. There he often performed his salon compositions, piano and vocal miniatures, the so-called canzonetteHe gathered those that were created in the early thirties in a collection Musical eveningsThis collection also includes The promise, song composed in the rhythm of a barcarolle in which the lover swears eternal love and fidelity to his beloved, and Dance, the famous bravura miniature for the tenor voice in a fast rhythm tarantella.

Emerging from Italian musical aesthetics, but enriched by Dalmatian musical heritage, Joseph Hatze (1879–1959) created some of the most beautiful solo songs of Croatian vocal lyric poetry, as well as two operas in which the influence of his education with the great verist Pietro Mascagni is felt – Povratak i Adele and MaraThis last one, written according to Botić's poem Poor Mara and premiered in 1931 in Ljubljana, it is his most mature work. It is a lyrical picture of Split and its history, in which the historical-love story of the unhappy lovers, the Turk Adela and the Croat Mara, is powerfully shaped in a rich score, with an atmosphere enlivened by the colors of the folklore of Split, the Dalmatian hinterland and Bosnia. If you want me, dear The serenade is Adela's from the fourth act; its broad melodic lines, strong emotional lift, and veristic expression make it one of the most emotional moments of the opera. In the songs Majka i Serenade The composer shows a recognizable lyrical trait, relying on a singable melody and an expressive vocal line in the spirit of late Romanticism and Italian bel canto.

Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846–1916) is the creator of some of the most beautiful Italian salon poems (living room romances), which he composed mostly in London in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where he settled permanently in 1880 and became a singing teacher at the court of the British royal family. He was educated in Naples, inheriting the great tradition there in the formation of vocal music, as well as the folklore of the region that echoes in his romances. Among the most successful and still popular are Ideal, which speaks of ideal love and longing in long melodic lines filled with nostalgia; Marechiare, in a swinging 6/8 rhythm, which describes a romantic scene by the sea in a Neapolitan setting; and I would like to die!, another love song in which the exclamation "I want to die" overemphasizes the passion and strength of feeling.

Everyday life, love affairs and comic situations in the Spanish style were found in the zarzuela genre, which developed from the 17th century, becoming in the 19th century a Spanish version of operetta recognizable by the characteristics of local folklore. One of the most important composers of zarzuela was Pablo Sorozábal (1897–1988), and among his numerous achievements stands out: The port tavern (Innkeeper from the port), which belongs to the so-called small gender – a shorter and more popular form. In the plot that revolves around a love triangle, the arrivals and departures of ships, port life, and the feeling of fate and waiting play an important role. The most famous fragment of the romance is Can not be (It Can't Be), in which Román expresses his inner pain and belief that he has lost Maria's love.

Naples was an urban and cultural center with a strong singing tradition, music publishing and theatrical life. On this fertile ground, the Neapolitan canzone genre flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, outgrowing its local context and entering the world concert repertoire. In the 1920s and 1930s, a new generation of composers emerged, including Cesare Andrea Bixio (1896–1978), author of a popular song Talk to me about love, Mariù which belongs to the type of modern hit; then Rodolfo Falvo (1873–1937) who composed the classic Neapolitan canzone Dicitencello howls; as well as Salvatore Cardillo (1874–1947) who in the poem Ungrateful heart, composed in emigration to the USA, brings an almost veristic aria colored by strong feelings of pain due to unrequited love.

One of the purest examples bel canto is located in the Nemorino aria A furtive tear from the opera Love potion Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848), with which this great composer presents the most beautiful example of Italian romantic lyric comedy. The soft, bittersweet melody culminates in a fine coloratura describing the emotions of Nemorino – a young man whose love is initially ignored by his beloved Adina, but when he sees a tear in her eye because of his supposed departure to war, Nemorino realizes that she loves him after all. The ending of the aria in B flat major transforms the initial melancholy into an idealized feeling of happiness.

Veristic author Francesco Cilea (1866–1950) left behind two repertoire works, the operas Arlesian (1897.) I Adriana Lecouvreur (1902), whose language is nevertheless softer and more lyrical than that of Mascagni or Leoncavallo. In Arlesienne, based on the play by Alphonse Daudet, tells a love tragedy in which the young Federico suffers because of his unrequited love for a mysterious girl from Arles. In the most famous aria, È la solita storia del pastore, Federico in a state of emotional exhaustion watches the sunrise, dreaming of a sound sleep that, like a little shepherd, will bring him oblivion and peace.

Zrinka Matić

Croatian tenor Tomislav Jukić He stands out with victories at prestigious international singing competitions, including the Josep Palet Singing Competition in 2026 and the Mikuláš Schneider-Trnavský and Antonín Dvořák competitions in 2023.

He is a member of the International Opera Studio at the Opernhaus Zürich, where he performs roles such as Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi) and Trabucco (The force of DestinyHe was a member of the Young Singers Project at the 2025 Salzburg Festival, where he received recognition for his participation in the opera The Musketeers. Before that he performed as Goro in Puccini's Madame Butterfly at the SNG Opera in ballet Ljubljana. Among his notable performances is the role of solo tenor in the work by C. Monteverdi Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, where he performed with the Croatian Radio and Television Choir and the Concerto dei Venti ensemble.

Upcoming highlights include his return to the 2026 Salzburg Festival in opera Werther (Schmidt) and a performance at the closing gala evening of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival with the Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, with the world-famous soprano Pretty Yende and soprano Darija Auguštan, and conducted by Sebastian Lang Lessing.

In the upcoming season, he will join the ensemble of the Leipzig Opera, where he will sing roles such as Don Ottavi (Don Giovanni) and Lensky (Eugene OneginHe will also perform at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb as Narraboth (Salome).

Lana Bradic was born in Zagreb in 1975. She began her musical education at the age of six at the Ivan Zajc Music School, and after graduating from the piano and theory department of the Blagoje Bersa Secondary Music School, at the age of seventeen she enrolled in piano at the Music Academy in the class of Prof. Stjepan Radić. She graduated in 1996, with a strong preference for chamber music and a special love for collaborating with opera singers. In 1997 she enrolled at the Hochschule für Darstellende Kunst in Graz and participated in the song interpretation classes (Vocal accompaniment) in the class of Prof. Gerhard Zeller. Already then she was working as an external associate at the Department of Singing at the Academy of Music in Zagreb.

She regularly improves her skills at numerous professional seminars led by eminent professors in the field of solo singing (C. Witthöft, K. Richter, J. Blakely) and gains experience working with numerous opera singers (Giorgio Surian, Martina Zadro, Lana Kos, Dubravka Šeparović Mušović, Vitomir Marof, Domagoj Dorotić, Leon Košavić) preparing them for roles in operas, oratorios and concerts.

She gives concerts throughout Croatia and Europe, participates in numerous festivals (Dubrovnik, Samobor, Osor, etc.) and collaborates with the Zvjezdice Girls' Choir, the Zagreb Soloists, the Croatian Chamber Philharmonic, and the Zagreb Philharmonic. She participates in seminars as an accompanist for famous opera pedagogues and is the official pianist of the "Zinka Milanov" International Opera Singers' Competition in Rijeka.

She is an artistic advisor at the Singing Department of the Academy of Music in Zagreb, where, together with the famous professor G. Surian, she trains many young, talented singers who today achieve success in international competitions and on world stages.

Giuseppe Giordani: My dear, well

Christoph Willibald Gluck: O my sweet ardor, Paris' aria from the opera Paris and Helen (Paride and Elena)

Vincenzo Bellini:

The fervent desire

Dolente immagine di Fille mia

Libra moon, which turns silver

malinconia

Gentle nymph

Gioachino Rossini:

The promise

Dance

Joseph Hatze: If you want me, dear, Adele's aria from the opera Adele and Mara

Majka

Serenade

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Francesco Paolo Tosti:

Ideal

Marechiare

I would like to die!

Pablo Sorozábal: Can not be, romance from a zarzuela The port tavern

Cesare Andrea Bixio: Talk to me about love, Mariù

Rodolfo Falvo: Dicitencello howls

Salvatore Cardillo: Ungrateful heart

Gaetano Donizetti: A furtive tear, the romance of Nemorino from the opera Love potion (The Elixir of Love)

Francesco Cilea: È la solita storia del pastore (Federic's Lament), aria from the opera Arlesian (L'Arlesiana)