The premiere of Purcell’s opera in three acts Dido and Aeneas under the baton of Maestro Tomislav Fačini and in the direction of Mirva Koivukangas from Finland was followed by the filled auditorium with a great interest, awarded in the end with a long standing enthusiastic applause and shouts of “Bravo”!
The Baroque opera in English has surprised and delighted a great many
“Ivana Srbljan is a real queen, I cannot think of anyone who could have sung or acted better!”, “Excellent! All of it, from the musical performance, direction, set and costume design”, “The Baroque period on stage is a novelty for me. I’m absolutely delighted with the music, story, direction, soloists as well as the visual part!”, “Different, a proper refreshment!”, “My best impressions tonight are the voices that resounded in the auditorium. Ivana Srbljan, Sonja Runje and Morana Pleše have sung and acted brilliantly, the soloists at a really high level!”, “We are delighted with all, having experienced and seen so much new to us”, “With her original direction the production director managed to create a powerful, not in the least naïve story. This opera is perfect for all, especially so the secondary school goers, being short, while the stories of moves and decisions of a young woman are interesting”, “A devoted team of the whole production, the orchestra and the conductor deserving all the praises. It seems to me that we are all infected with the Baroque music now. Beautiful!”
The soloists were Ivana Srbljan as Dido, Marko Fortunato as Aeneas, Sonja Runje as Sorceress, Morana Pleše as Belinda and First Witch, Ana Majdak as Second Woman, Iskra Stanojević as Second Sorceress, Franko Klisović as Spirit and Saša Matovina as First Sailor. Paola Lugarić realised her first set design, Manuela Paladin Šabanović was costume designer, Osku Heiskanen was in charge of movement and Dalibor Fugošić designed lighting. The concertmaster was Anton Kyrylov and the chorus master Nicoletta Olivieri
Reruns are at 19:00 hours on 21 and 23 February
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