What is it that Croatian Drama, Italian Drama, Opera and Ballet, as well as the Rijeka Youth Theatre Kamov are preparing?
Practicing diversity is the slogan of the following two CNT Ivan pl. Zajc seasons. According to the Theatre general manager Marin Blažević at the press conference, the slogan connects the past, tradition and future; contemporaneously associating Practicing Life, the cult Rijeka production by Fabrio and Gašparović in the direction of Georgij Paro and Port of Diversity, the fundamental slogan of the Rijeka 2020, European Capital of Culture.
As a special characteristic of the next theatre season 2018/2019, Blažević pointed out numerous co-productions of branches of performing arts, as with the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Teatro Alighieri and Fondazione Ravenna Manifestazioni, Piccolo Festival del Friuli Venezia Giulia and Punto Arte – Amsterdam, the Slovenian Philharmonic and Cankarjev dom from Ljubljana, the Split Summer Festival, as well as the Music Biennale Zagreb.
“We are continuing the Rijeka Youth Theatre Kamov programme, the new season comprising also ballet programmes. This will be taking place at the new Delta 5 venue, which will also be the Zajc off stage, where productions of the Zajc Lab will be performed, such as monodramas, experimental forms, etc.”, said Blažević, adding that a wish of the audience will be fulfilled by including a musical into the repertoire. “After a longer period of time, a musical is coming back to the Zajc stage, with all Theatre branches of arts working on Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, the musical that has captivated Broadway and the West End.”
Croatian drama director Renata Carola Gatica said that Michelangelo, after the Miroslav Krleža’s play Michelangelo Buonarotti, is being staged exactly one hundred years after it was written, with director Sebastijan Horvat who is one of the few not to run away from Krleža and with Rakan Rushaidat in the lead role. Regoč by Ivana Brlić Mažuranić will be directed by Olja Lozica, director of the hit staging of Vincent. In the form of a subtitle, director Olja Lozica will be asking the question “Can we be friends although we are different?” Leica format, a novel by Daša Drndić dramatized by Goran Ferčec, a play with Rijeka in the lead role, will be directed by Franka Perković. Numerous successful plays from past seasons are coming back on stage, such as Down, by law, The Misanthrope, Whore (Kurva), Woyzeck, Water (Voda), Zajc Stand Up, The Presidents and Our Upbringing (Naš odgoj).
Renata Carola Gatica announced quite a number of Croatian Drama guest performances, as in Maribor, Sarajevo, Zagreb, but also many of awarded and hit productions that will give guest performances in Rijeka, namely, productions of the Atelier 212, ZKM, CNT Zagreb, INK Pula, Kerempuh, GKL Split, etc.
As the new Italian Drama director Giulio Settimo announced, the Italian Drama season begins with a production for children, Happy and Content /Felici e contente/I živjele su uvijek sretno/ by Premuda, in the direction of Giorgio Amodeo, while the season for adults begins with the production of Sand Pit /Bucca di sabbia/Pješčanik/ by Walczak, in the direction of Jernej Kobal. What follows is the premiere of operetta Two overturns, Trieste 1918 and Rijeka 1019 /I due ribaltoni, Trieste 1918 e Fiume 1919/Dva prevrata, Trst 1918. i Rijeka 1919./ in the direction of Maurizio Soldo, performed in the Triestine and Fiuman dialect. Elvia Nachinovich is celebrating her 45 years of work with the performance of Decorators do not have memories/ Gli imbianchini non hanno ricordi/Pituri nemaju sjećanja / by Dario Fo, in the direction of Mario Kovač. For the end of the season, we are preparing the Butterfly Effect /Effetto farfalla/Efekt leptira/ by Chiara Boscaro and Marco Di Stefano, who will also be directing the staging that features actors from both Milan and Rijeka. The Italian Drama new season repertoire comprises also the reruns of Even fleas can cough /Anche le pulci hanno la tosse/, Mini e maxi and Miscellanea.
“The new concert season is a highlight of what we have been building in the last years” were the introductory words of the Rijeka Opera director Petar Kovačić in his announcing of the new concert and opera season. Maestro Yordan Kamdzhalov is arriving as the Rijeka Theatre Principal Conductor, having prepared memorable concerts here a number of times.
The first opera premiere is Zajc’s Nikola Šubić Zrinski. Ville Matvejeff and Igor Vlajnić share conducting duties, Dora Ruždjak Podolski is the director and Giorgio Surian in the title role. Follow great
co-productions, as the opera Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod, under the baton of Paolo Olmi, in the dramaturgy and direction of Marin Blažević, Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) by W.A. Mozart, conducted by Stefan Rabaglia and in the direction of Ewa Buchmann, then Elektra by Richard Strauss conducted by Ville Matvejeff, in the dramaturgy and direction of Marin Blažević. The programme comprises the reruns of Falstaff, Dido and Aeneas, Macbeth and Norma with Kristina Kolar in the lead role.
The Ballet Company starts the season with 4 Boleros, to be choreographed, next to Maša Kolar, Shota Inoue and Kristina Lever, by the renowned choreograph Andonis Foniadakis, prior to his participation in the year 2020, the European Capital of Culture programme. Follows the marking of the 100th anniversary of birth of the eminent conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein by the production of Serenade – Allegro, in the choreography of Igor Kirov and Maša Kolar, then Hero is tired to the music by Frano Đurović, in the choreography by Giuseppe Spota and in the co-production with the Music Biennale Zagreb. The ballet will be dancing again to live music – in the premiere of two ballets by Igor Stravinsky, Pulcinella and Apollo, conducted by George Jackson, and in choreographies of Giovanni di Palma and Martin Chaix. The reruns comprise Rossini Cards, Macbeth and Merry Christmas of Playful Children.
City of Rijeka Department of Culture Head Ivan Šarar expressed his praise of numerous co-productions and the CNT itself as actual diversity at work.
Studio Sonda has presented the new Rijeka CNT identity, with the new logo.
It is the first time that you can secure the best seat at the CNT Ivan pl. Zajc auditorium by purchasing subscription already in July or from 5th September.