Our dear viewers,
We are pleased to announce that after the summer break we will soon be raising the curtain once more on the Zajc stage! Our program will begin with a pre-season, musical stage introduction to the new season on Friday, September 10 and Saturday, September 11. First on the program is an opera that “touched the audience’s hearts,” Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, created in collaboration with the Croatian National Theatre in Split and directed by Dražen Siriščević. The role of young Japanese woman Cio-Cio San will be sung by principal singer of the theatre, Anamarija Knego, and the reckless US Navy officer Pinkerton will be played by principal singer Aljaž Farasin. The opera will be conducted by virtuoso and chief conductor of the Rijeka Symphony Orchestra Valentin Egel. “The audience received an opera of classical forms and tempting images, with brilliant singing performances,” said music critic Gloria Fabijanić Jelović for Radio Rijeka following the opera’s premiere, which then won the Boris Papandopulo Audience Award for Best Performance in the Opera Program of the 2019/2020 season, while Anamarija Knego won the Stefanija Lenković Audience Award for Best Female Opera Role for the role of Cio-Cio San.
A day later, on Saturday, September 11, the Opera and Ballet of the Slovenian National Theatre in Ljubljana will, after many years, perform an attractive concert program on the Rijeka stage that will bring an atmosphere of joy and happiness much like that of the popular New Year’s concerts. The gala concert will be conducted by the noted Slovenian maestro Marko Hribernik; the program includes arias and duets from operettas, comic operas and comic Spanish zarzuela, with works by Offenbach, Bernstein, Strauss, Smetana, Lehár, Chapí, Fernández Caballero and others. Sopranos Urška Arlič Gololičič and Martina Zadro, mezzo-soprano Nuška Drašček, tenor Aljaž Farasin and baritone Jože Vidic will perform as soloists. The program will also include the eternally popular polkas and waltzes of Strauss II, with performances by the ballet ensemble choreographed by the famous Robert Zanelle.
Tickets for both pre-season programs can be purchased online starting on September 1, as well as at the Zajc box office starting on September 3. Entry will be possible only upon presentation of a covid pass.
See you in our and your Theatre!
