There are rare individuals, enthusiasts, persistent and dedicated cultural workers, who are responsible for discovering, researching, studying, presenting, spreading and preserving national cultural values. One of them is Dobrila Popović, MSc.
In addition to activities related to the collection and systematization of Montenegrin musical heritage materials, she is the author and reviewer of several culture textbooks, and has published professional works on music pedagogy in domestic and foreign publications.
In her capacity as music advisor to the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, she established a concert activity in the renovated National Theater in Podgorica, organized numerous concerts dedicated to the promotion of young talents, as well as concerts of established musicians from the country and abroad. She designed several projects of international cooperation and representation of Montenegrin musicians abroad.
Within the Research Unit of KotorArt, she started a segment dedicated to Montenegrin musical heritage, and last year, thanks to the research work and personal connections of Dobrila Popović, selected numbers from operas inspired by Montenegro were premiered at the Festival.
And for this year, you have found something completely new and unknown to our public. For the premiere, at KotorArt, we will hear parts from two operas inspired by Montenegrins.
In the series of discovered musical works created during the 19th century, which were written by European composers inspired by Montenegro, there were also two opera works by composers from different countries, but connected by the same theme and title: Montenegrins - Les Montenegrins i Montenegrins. Last year, operas by French composer Armand Limander and Czech composer Karel Bendl with soloists and a symphony orchestra were premiered at KotorArt. The concept of this year's Festival includes a triptych dedicated to women, so in this context, we decided on two new opera discoveries: opera Milica, by the Italian composer Marco Ancoletti, and an opera Jovana by the Czech composer Jaroslav Vogel. Selected numbers from these operas, with voice and piano, we will try to present music that had its own life on the stages of European cultural centers, but has remained almost unknown in our region to this day.
Maestro Mladen Tarbuk ranks you among the rare people who essentially know the Montenegrin musical heritage and which can be of great help to those interested in putting Montenegrin music back in the focus of interest and research.
Many thanks for last year's successful presentation of the opera Montenegrins we owe it to maestro Tarbuk, a versatile artistic phenomenon, conductor and composer. He led the expert team that recorded and did the first redaction of the numbers from the operas that were performed. It is important to note that the score is an opera Montenegrins was lost for more than a century, the condition in which it was found required expert processing so that his part in the realization was much more complex than the careful reading of scores and preparation for orchestral performance. Working on scores also provided a good insight into the composer's technique and stylistic framework, which are of great importance for the setting and interpretation of the work. As a great connoisseur of Croatian musical heritage, he himself reconstructed the lost score of the opera Sunshine Boris Papandopoulos and edited the opera Nikola Šubić Zrinjski by Ivan Zajac, is very knowledgeable and understands well the importance of research, collection and processing of musical heritage. In this sense, the maestro was impressed by the knowledge that the romantic interest in Montenegro, its heroic-historical past, the beauty of its unconquered hills and the Montenegrin life in them, in the field of music gave rise to a significant number of musical works composed by European composers. In addition to works written by local authors, creators from our area, these works by outsiders can also be interpreted in a broader sense as the musical heritage of Montenegro.
How did you become interested in the Montenegrin musical past, in the national history of music, archival and musicological work?
My interest in research work has followed me since my student days, many of my works during my master's and specialist studies were related to the formal and harmonic analysis of musical works, but also the search for data about the time and circumstances in which they were created. As a member of the Music Committee of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2010, I made a great effort to organize a scientific meeting within CANU In the footsteps of Montenegrin musical heritage. Most of the researchers of our musical layers, musicologists and ethnomusicologists mainly from the region, presented their works and indicated the need to start work on compiling a bibliography of writings about music related to Montenegrin heritage. Here we are talking about works published not only in Montenegro, but also in countries that had close cultural and political ties. In addition to the countries of the region, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Russia, France, Germany and other European countries are also included. In a way, that was the beginning of more serious dealing with our heritage, collecting and systematizing material not only in terms of archiving, but also in the function of preparing for the performance and revival of music almost unknown to us.
On your initiative, the Research Unit of KotorArt was created. The organizers of the Festival recognized the importance and provided the necessary support for the formation of this significant body. I believe that you will agree that this is a big step forward in the programming policy of a classical music festival.
The research unit, as a segment of the Festival, was created after a long consideration of the role and function that the dynamic and contemporary cultural scene at KotorArt should have, namely that in addition to the continuous presentation of high artistic creativity, a kind of dialogue between recent culture and the rich and complex cultural heritage takes place. By the nature of things, Kotor is the nucleus of Montenegrin musical culture, from the first organ, Fiorelli's music school, the first singing company Jedinstvo, City Music, in the field of creativity, the creation and performance of the first vocal musical-scenic work, Šulc's operetta, and then the post-war formation of the Vida Matjan music school, and much more could be listed. So, the Research Unit is just a step in that sequence that opens up possibilities for further systematic research in the field of musical heritage, a unit that is much needed, and in our institutional system of culture, it has not yet been established.
What are the activities of the Research Unit?
Activities within the unit are, first of all, focused on research, collection and list of manuscript and printed scores of Montenegrin and foreign composers who worked in the territory of today's Montenegro, but also those who were inspired by Montenegrin melodic music and our area. Connecting with European countries and including Montenegro in contemporary trends through research activity is one of the benefits that such activities bring with them, and a special value for the Festival that adorns the prefix "of national importance for culture."
Cultural and historical relations between the Czech Republic and Montenegro are a motive for cooperation
An important collaborator in the work of the Research Unit is Tomaš Slavicki, Czech musicologist, curator and associate of the National Museum in Prague. By working together, you achieved significant successes, and the result is two Czech operas that you managed to preserve from oblivion and present to the Montenegrin audience. Your cooperation established not only cultural cooperation, but also a connection with Czech national institutions. Is there a plan to continue cooperation on a new project?
Research interventions almost always require teamwork or the involvement of several collaborators from related professions in the process. The presence of Czech musicians in Montenegro had far-reaching consequences since the middle of the 19th century, when they laid the foundations for the development of musical life in the Principality of Montenegro, acting as chapel masters, choirmasters, music pedagogues and melographers of Montenegrin folk melodies. Thanks to their work, and through the representation of musical practices typical of civil society in Europe from that period, there were significant changes in the cultural life of Kotor and Cetinje. Collaboration with the Czech musicologist Tomas Slavicki is a natural sequence of things. With his knowledgeable and dedicated work, we managed to find manuscripts of lost opera scores and to obtain many other data related to Montenegrin music. The legacy left to us by his compatriots is equally interesting for both of us, and on a broader level for the cultural and historical relations between the Czech Republic and Montenegro, so we very easily found a common motive for cooperation. In the coming period, we will work on the projects that we have already outlined, which relate to the activities of Czech musicians in Boka and further in Dalmatia.
Until recently, you worked in the Ministry of Culture and Information of Montenegro, and you are still involved in the activities of this Ministry. At the institutional level, is there a plan, a cultural strategy for the preservation of Montenegrin musical heritage, or is the care of music that has long since fallen into oblivion left to the individual?
Many years of work in the Ministry of Culture in Cetinje facilitated my access to archival units, libraries and other sources, which significantly contributed to creating a serious database and collecting a large number of scores over the past two decades. The training conducted by UNESCO in cooperation with the Ministry in the field of protection of intangible cultural heritage gave me additional strength to deal with this issue professionally and with great enthusiasm. I emphasize personal enthusiasm as the driving force, because frequent changes in management staff and, unfortunately, their insufficient knowledge of the essence of culture, models of how to stimulate and develop creativity on the one hand, and ways of protecting and valorizing heritage on the other, have largely led to the ephemeral position in which culture is today. At the institutional level, the care of musical activity is entrusted to the Music Center of Montenegro, which in the description of its activities, in addition to popularizing musical activities through the organization of concerts, also includes music and musicological publishing. On this plan, only a few publications referring to the musical heritage of Montenegro were realized in the past period. It should be kept in mind that the Academy of Music, which has entered its fifth decade of existence, still does not have a chair for musicology and ethnomusicology, which, due to the lack of appropriate staff, puts interest and work like mine in the sphere of pioneering endeavors.
Can we expect any changes in jurisdiction?
I participate in the Working Body for Development of the National Cultural Development Program, at the Ministry of Culture. Specifically, this document foresees the development of culture for the next five years, through clearly defined strategic goals that systematically determine the directions of action and ways of implementing cultural policy. In such a projection, the preservation of musical heritage is part of institutional plans and work programs, and its further development will depend on the expertise and sensibility of the persons who lead the institution.
Square of Philosophers, a special segment of KotorArt, this year takes place within a three-day program Vox feminae, which is dedicated to raising awareness about the still prevalent gender discrimination and stereotypes regarding women in the Balkans. The backbone of the opera libretto Milica and operas Jovana, are women from this area, and their presentation will also take place during the second evening and program Montenegro as an inspiration. With this program, KotorArt continues to expand its field of interest to socially engaged topics.
Since its foundation, KotorArt has always followed social, cultural and other movements, such as, for example, during the pandemic, and has been involved in current events with appropriate content and topics. This year's segment dedicated to women, in addition to the debate part on gender-sensitive issues, was also determined on the artistic principle Montenegro as an inspiration. A woman in old Montenegro, a strong, determined and proud Montenegrin, a woman from the people, brave in the face of life and almost always ready to sacrifice for the sake of love and higher goals, inspired the authors Ancoleti and Vogel to use musical means to shape their heroines. On his own libretto of the love drama Ancoleti performed Milice, young women moved by the fire of sublime love for the Muslim Hasan, presented the audacity and boldness of the Montenegrin woman to oppose the patriarchal constraints and to break the ruling collective norms. The central idea of the second opera, drama John, is the relationship between a man and a woman, their internal conflict between fidelity and the desire for offspring. Deprived of the ability to give her husband a son, Jovana renounces love and leaves him so that his desire for fatherhood can come true with another woman. The libretto for Vogel's opera was based on the story of the Montenegrin writer and folklorist Mićun Pavićević. On the archetypal example of sacrifice and brave actions, these two women could certainly open a series of questions related to the position of women, their desires and limited freedoms in the debate that is foreseen in the program Vox feminae.
Inspiration for launching the program Vox feminae is the unique personality and work of Darinka Matić Marović. She was decorated with hard work and vision, strong driving energy, authority, original musicality, she was an inspiration and encouragement to many female artists. In her honor, KotorArt established the biennial Darinka Matić Marović Award in 2021, and this year the award was given to Karmina Šilec from Slovenia. How did the work of the jury you chaired go?
KotorArt, that is, the Foundation Don Branko Sbutega established the Award named after the famous stepmother Darinka Matić Marović. This year, the prize is awarded for the second time based on the established procedure and prescribed provisions. In accordance with that, she appointed members of the jury from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, who, as established connoisseurs of musical creativity and performance in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, examined the attached candidacies for awarding the Award. This year, among the seven nominated artists, the prize was awarded to Karmina Šilec from Slovenia, an artist with a wide range of activities. In the explanation of the Jury, Karmina Šilec's boldness and provocativeness in transforming various vocal ensembles into top artistic formations of the highest rank was highlighted. She expanded the field of choral, chamber and solo singing to the most complex creative spaces into comprehensive, multiform works of art. Her projects have been awarded major international awards in scenic areas that include music. I had the special pleasure of presiding over the work of the jury and was honored to present the award to the artist at the award ceremony at KotorArt.
You were a member of the Academic Choir Collegium musicum during student days, a choir in which more than 500 girls took part, the so-called "collegium girls", who today are renowned artists, professors, personalities with integrity and authority in the creation of cultural policies. How much has Darnika Matić Marović influenced your development, personal and professional life path? Did she inspire, motivate, direct, shape you?
The short answer to this question would be: a lot! Our relationship went through several stages, from my student days when I met professor Darinka Matić Marović and became a member of her choir, then working at the Music Academy in Podgorica, when we were colleagues, later collaborators on many projects within the program of the Montenegrin National Theater and KotorArt. All stages took place under the aura of a close, friendly relationship. I had the privilege of developing myself professionally next to a person who was woven from love and respect for music. A disciplined and dedicated attitude towards the profession, perseverance and persistence, the search for innovative solutions in the sound space are just some of the qualities that graced Dara, which were inevitably reflected on all her "collegium" students. Her spiritual presence is very strong even today when she is no longer physically with us, and evoking the memory of this unique woman only confirms the thought that she was ours alma mater
To preserve young talents, as a valuable human resource
Working in the Ministry of Culture and Information, you supported young talents for many years, supported them in their first major steps in professional music, and followed their development and progress. Some of them were gathered this year at KotorArt forum of young artists. What is the idea of this Forum?
I saw the support of young and talented musicians, as one of the activities of the Ministry, as a kind of continuation of my decade-long pedagogical work. One of the forms of support were concerts in the Ministry Hall in Cetinje where we presented young musicians, laureates of national and international competitions or successful participants of master workshops. Many of them, with the help of the Ministry, continued their further professional training mostly outside the country. They maintained their connection with Montenegro precisely through concert activity in cultural institutions or summer festivals with our recommendation. This year, young musicians who have been presented in concerts through the festival segment in previous years will gather in Kotor KotorArt talents. The intention of the organizers is to encourage most of them, who are educated and musically developed in European centers, to look at our cultural space, its advantages, possibilities, but also its shortcomings through debate and exchange of opinions. The support of their aspirations to present themselves artistically has already been shown through their participation in KotorArt programs, and inclusion in the cultural streams of Montenegro and constant connection with the environment from which they originate is the primary idea of this venture and one of the ways to preserve them as a valuable human resource.
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