The first new project of the 28th City Theater, which the festival audience will see for the first time on July 10 on the stage of St. Stephen's, is "Amadeus", based on the already iconic play by Peter Šafer, directed by Dora Ruždjak-Podolski, a co-production with GDK "Gavela from Zagreb" and Hartefakt fund from Belgrade.
The well-known story that focuses on the relationship between two composers who lived and created in the middle of the XNUMXth century - the genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri (according to Šafer's text, his admirer and greatest enemy), brought together a team of authors and actors in which, in addition to the director, playwright Dubravko Mihanović , set designer Stefano Katunar, costume designer Marita Ćopo, assistant for stage movement Maja Marjančić, and Ivan Skender was signed as the author for the selection and processing of the music.
In the role of Salieri we will see Enes Vejzović, as Mozart Flip Križan, his wife Konstanca Weber is played by Nataša Janjić, and there are also Franjo Dijak, Zoran Gogić, Siniša Ružić, Janko Rakoš, "Povjetarci" (bringers of news, gossip, rumors) are Ankica Dobrić , Ivana Bolanča, Perica Martinović, Natalija Đorđević, and the maestro is Vjekoslav Babić.
According to Dora Ruždjak-Podolski, already a good acquaintance of the Grad Teatar festival and its audience (as a selector of the Dubrovnik Summer Games, she was a guest two years ago), the selection of "Amadeus" for the production was due to the entire "biography" of this play, especially the film by Miloš Forman, who won as many as eight Oscars, is binding in advance.
The most sought-after actress in the region, Nataša Janjić, will be seen by the audience in the role of Constance Weber
Actor Enes Vejzović, who will portray Salieri, recalled that historical facts do not speak of the fact that he was really an enemy of Mozart.
"As someone who is his "lawyer" in this play, I have to say that because of Schafer's play in which Salieri eventually poisons Mozart, Pushkin before that, and Forman's film from 1984, Salieri is today a paradigm for a man of mediocre capabilities, and the great enemy of gifted men. From Mozart's authentic legacy, however, it can be seen that this disgraced Italian, composer at the court of Vienna, was not sickly jealous of the young genius, but supported him, and that he was greatly wronged. But, the audience will, of course, see that familiar version of the story," Vejzović pointed out.
The audience will see one of the busiest actresses in the region, Nataša Janjić, in the role of Konstance Weber.
"Historical facts compared to the dramatic text speak differently about the relationship between Mozart and his wife Constance. The question of whether she left him and never came back, didn't even come to his funeral, bothered me for a long time. In the play, she will return towards the end of his life, and preserve all his works that will come to us over time," said the actress.
Sonja Kovačić, acting director of "Gavela", stated that "Amadeus" is the second co-production of Zagreb's GDK and City Theater after "Caligula", directed by Tomaž Pandur in 2008.
"In the entire region, there is less and less money for theater and for culture in general, and co-productions are really our future, what we have to work on in order for theater art to survive," said Sonja Kovačić, stressing that she is looking forward to this new good cooperation with the Grad festival theater.
Regional co-productions are no longer a curiosity and are not at the level of "incident"
The director of the City Theater, Merin Smailagić, reminded that the new project is the 61st co-production in the 28-year history of the Budva festival.
"Cooperation with "Gavel" is a logical step after the previous good experiences we had in cooperation, and I am happy about it. I am especially happy about the cooperation with the director Dora Ruždjak-Podolski, who, as the selector of the Dubrovnik Summer Games, renewed the cooperation between our two festivals after a break of more than two decades - they were here with the play "Kate Kapuralica" directed by Dario Harjaček, and we were guests at the Games with "B žanstveni comedy" choreographed by Edvard Klug, and it was also the first play from a Montenegrin production who was a guest in Dubrovnik," said Smailagić.
The selector of the drama program of the City Theater Boris Miskov i ć said that it would be easy to say that the "reason" for "Amadeus" was the fact that Forman's film was distributed in the former Yugoslavia by "Zeta Film" in Budva, but that this is not quite the case.
"The agreement with Sonja Kovačić came by chance, after last year's guest appearance of "Gavela" at Gradu Teatr, but I am most pleased by the fact that regional co-productions are no longer a curiosity, and are not at the level of an "incident", but that this kind of cooperation is simply normal and beautiful, and to the joy of all of us - that these spaces, without any great fanfare, cooperate with each other," Mišković pointed out.
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