The 63rd Split Summer Festival traditionally begins on July 14th with the premiere of Barber of Seville, a comic opera by Gioachino Rossini in the Meštrović Kaštilac. The opera will be conducted by Maestro Ivo Lipanović and is directed by Krešimir Dolenčić.
The 32 days of the festival, which will last until August 14th, boasts a program of 28 operas, dramas, ballets, concerts, poetry readings, art exhibitions, art installations, and book promotions, which total to 45 performances that will take place across nine locations, reports Split.com.hr on July 5, 2017.
In addition to The Barber of Seville, there are two premiere ensembles by the Croatian National Theater in Split. On August 9th on the open stage at Villa Dalmatia there will be a premiere performance of the drama by Predrag Lucić Aziz (weddings that changed West) and the last day of the Festival, on August 14th, the Ballet Theater Split will host a premiere performance of Death and the Dervish by Igor Kirov.
The Opera Program
In addition to the premiere of The Barber of Seville, the opera program boasts revival performances that are the “trademark” of the Split Summer Festival. Verdi’s Aida will be held at Peristyle and is one of the most impressive Split opera productions in recent years; award-winning and critically acclaimed Turandot by Puccini will be held in the grand surroundings of the Meštrović Gallery; and our most popular and most performed opera Ero by Jakov Gotovac will again live in his “authentic” ambiance, near the fountain in Vrlika, the birthplace of librettist Begović and many folkloric incentives Gotovac built into his masterpieces.
Drama Program
The premiere of Aziz (weddings that changed West) directed by Dino Mustafić will be held at the Villa Dalmatia on the south side of Split. Written about ten years ago, the Predrag Lucić drama, which discusses the planetary hysteria of the “war on terrorism” and the production of fear the industry, will ultimately experience its first theatre staging. There will be reruns of two audience favorites including Laugh and Tears of the Old Split, a piece that bursts with the spirit of past times and Buza Zivko Jeličića, a bitter-sweet comedy about “neighbors from hell”. Guest will perform titles such as the award-winning performance of Lungs by the Duncan Macmillan Theater Exit; In Agony by Miroslav Krleza by PUK – traveling theater and Scene Ribnjak; entertaining comedy Muskarci.hr by Art Organization Teatroman and Satirical Theater Kerempuh; Author project by Olja Lozice & TD Theater The first time I saw your face, an intimate and touching drama about a woman who loses memory due to illness; the great drama How Life by Nina Mitrović produced by Theater Moruzgva; and a moving monodrama Line Average Lampedusa Beach, performed by Nina Violić and produced by Theater Hotel Bulic.
Dance program
On August 14th, on the stage of the Split Ballet Theater, there will be a premiere of Death and the Dervish by choreographer Igor Kirov. The performance is set to the motives of Selimovic’s novel and to the music of Goran Bojčevskog. The rest of the dance program will be held this summer under the auspices of the “Dance Evenings” at Sustipan, where the Split Ballet will perform On the Road East West. The ensemble of the Macedonian Opera and Ballet from Skopje will perform Red Room and the Federal Theater from Radebeu in German Saska will perform Tango Piazzolla by choreographer Carlos Matas.
Concerts
The concerts at this year’s festival will include well-known violinist Stefan Milenkovic and pianist Rohan de Silva; Wiener glasharmonika duo; Zoran Todorovic, one of the most interesting tenors of today’s music scene, accompanied by pianist Francesco del Sol; renowned guitarist Goran Listeš from Split; Marimba duo Katarzyna Myćka and Filip Merčep; the 45th anniversary of Split chorus Brodosplit, one of the most awarded global choirs; and family duo Kovač, sisters Biljana and Vedrana.
After several years of absence at the Split Summer Festival, poetry nights will return! The nights will be dedicated to three major poetic names from the Split region including Tonča Petras Marovic, Drago Štambuk and Jakše Fiamengo.
The festival exhibition program ranges from Split Visual Reminder, a large retrospective of Split art since World War II and today, showing the mythical and former illegal exhibitions to the present day; a retrospective of the strong, rugged sculptural oeuvre of Stjepan Gračan; a photographic exhibition of Pinhole Portraits by Mateja Smolčić; a multimedia exhibition Light and Dark Mediterranean by Matko Trebotic; exhibition of Ence Kovacevic in frame of the artist at Meštrović. An art installation of a heterotopia city will address the fate of Split as a city with rapid tourism that “converts” the scenery into a former shell of itself.
For more about the program and tickets, visit www.splitsko-ljeto.hr
