FULL Ekvinocij (Brkanović) TV-Opera 1983 Marijana Radev, Dusko Kukovec, Franjo Petrusanec

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Ekvinocij or Equinox  
• Composer: Brkanović Ivan   
• Libretto: Tomislav Prpic  
• Venue & Opera Company: TV-Studio Croatia and on location  
• Recorded: 1983
• Type: Movie
• Singers: Marijana Radev, Dusko Kukovec, Franjo Petrusanec, Branka Beretovac, Albin Kokeza, Ante Matanovic, Josip Parmakovic, Biserka Anic, Piero Filippi
• Conductor: Mladen Basic  
• Orchestra: Orkestar Hvratskog narodnog kazalista u Split  
• Chorus: Zbor Hvratskog narodnog kazalista u Split  
• Stage Director: Daniel Marusic  
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: HRT  
• Date Published: 1983  
• Format: Broadcast
• Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
• Subtitles: nosubs  
• Video Recording from: YouTube     FULL VIDEO
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Quote from hnk.hr
Having started his musical journey in the thirties of the 20th century, at the time of the prevailing opinion that every piece of music must be nationally colored, Ivan Brkanović was and remained a consistent supporter of the national direction of musical art with his creativity. In most of his works, he combined the psychological features of Croatian musical folklore and his own artistic individuality and created an impressive oeuvre of one hundred and thirty works. The originality of the content combined with distinctive compositional procedures, distinct melodicism, enhanced by the primordial rhythms of the climate, bold symbolic structures and strong, sometimes strong orchestration, are the main features of Brkanović’s oeuvre, already visible in his first, extremely successful musical and stage work, Equinox. As a composer extremely connected to the climate and mentality of the people of the South Dalmatian region, where he originates from, Ivan Brkanović found inspiration in the dramatic text Equinox by Ivo Vojnović, which begins the modern period of Croatian dramatic literature. Vojnović’s realistic drama, with extremely socio-critical dimensions, contained exactly those elements needed by the composer to create a complete musical drama, romantic in intensity of feeling, and realistic in psychologically motivated characterization of characters and relationships. As early as 1895, Vojnović gave the incentive to set his drama to music and wrote as the motto of the Symphonic Intermezzo: I leave it to the genius of the composer to convey to the theater all the secrets of the equinox storm. This drama springs from it, and again, it finds its symbolic meaning in it. Who better than music to revive the wild, majestic poetry of the struggle between life and death, whether in nature, was it in a tortured soul? In the conditions caused by the natural disaster, a musical dramatic conflict ignited by human passions and transgressions committed a long time ago develops. The focus of interest is the character of Jela, a seduced and abandoned woman, around whom all the essential dramaturgical elements of the work are interwoven. As a mother, she tries to protect her illegitimate son, now a young man, at a time when he is in danger from his father, a rich returnee from America, who wants to rob his son of his great love, his girlfriend Anica. The depiction of the equinox night, in which the showdown between the father and the unrecognized son is to take place, is a unique example of musical stage realism. Experiencing his characters deeply rooted in the element from which they originated, Brkanović faithfully conveys their ever-present faith in life and inexhaustible primordial strength that helps them in their constant struggle for existence. With a powerful musical score, in many ways unique in Croatian stage music, he evoked in a poignant way the unfortunate destinies of people connected to capricious nature. The opera was premiered in 1950 at the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb.