Ending its exceptionally successful season, the Rijeka Opera ensemble will give guest performance at the international Armel Opera Festival with the production Klothó – The Thread of Tales by Martyna Kosecka, a Rijeka-Zagreb opera phantasy tale created in the co-production of the Music Biennale Zagreb and the CNT Ivan pl. Zajc, which will be performed on 3rd of July in the Austrian capital.
The internationally recognised Armel Opera Festival is marking its tenth anniversary. For the first time this year, the best operas chosen by world music experts will be performed in Vienna as well, besides Budapest. It is a unique opera festival that presents opera rarities, especially contemporary works, co-operating with selected European opera houses. The profession regards it a “festival of exceptional quality, powerful international value, one of the best festivals in the region”. The list of their co-operations with prestigious institutions spreads on the yearly basis. They produce concerts in Hungary, in the Versailles Castle and Opera d’Avignon in France, in the Czech Republic and Germany, in the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Cadogan Hall and Hackney Empire Theatre in London, etc.
Music Experts from the Armel Opera Festival recognised the opera Klothó in the April of this year when it had its premiere at the Music Biennale Zagreb, followed by the Rijeka premiere, under the baton of Maestro Berislav Šipuš and in the direction of Krzystof Cicheński.
This intriguing and complex phantasy opera in one act and eight scenes connects motives of fairy tales from different cultures, among others, also the fairy tales by Ivana Brlić Mažuranić, Kosecka having thus created a timeless universal story for everyone. Speaking of this work of hers, the young composer and librettist points out, “This fairy tale is like the thread of life, an endless medley of stories of which each has its own rhyme, the rhyme of life, plot and action”.
This phantasy world from a child’s dream is rendered on stage by Rijeka soloists Ingrid Haller, Ivana Srbljan, Marko Fortunato, Dario Bercich, French baritone Nicolas Rigas, Polish countertenor Karol Bartosiński, dancer Dina Dehni Sow and the CNT Ivan pl. Zajc Orchestra and Chorus. Julia Kosekmis is costume and set designer, Bartłomiej Szlachcic lighting designer, Dina Dehni Sow choreographer, Anton Kyrylov concertmaster and Nicoletta Olivieri chorus master. It is in this way that the Rijeka Opera continues its presence on the international music scene after it recorded for eminent international recording companies, which it will continue to do with international opera stars.
Immediately after the return from Vienna, intensive rehearsals for Verdi’s Aida are continuing. On 20th July, Aida will crown the Theatre’s successful season on stage of the Opatija Open Air Theatre, as part of the 14th Rijeka Summer Nights programme.
