A witty, fast-paced and entertaining opera performance

Premiere of the opera “La serva padrona” (The Servant Mistress) Giovanni Battista Pergolesi will be performed on Thursday, July 23rd at 21 pm in the Auditorium of the Military Hall in Porto Montenegro, as part of the Tivat Music Festival program. The day after the premiere, the opera will also be performed at the Cultural Center “Nikola Đurković” in Kotor.

The audience will have the opportunity to enjoy one of the most famous comic operas of all time, a work that has not lost its freshness, wit and relevance even after almost three centuries. The new stage reading of the opera was created in co-production of the Tivat Cultural Center and the “Nikola Đurković” Cultural Center in Kotor, in cooperation with the Tivat Music Festival and KotorArt festivals.

The music will be performed by the Boka Bay Symphony Orchestra Chamber Ensemble under the baton of the maestro Mladena Tarbuka, and directed by a prominent Croatian director Paolo Tisljaric. The main role of Serpina is played by a soprano Petra Radulovic, see Uberta at Jakov Kalajzic, and the servant of Vespone is played by an actor Matija Grabic.

Petra Radulović is looking forward to the premiere, after inspiring teamwork.

“It is a great pleasure for me to be part of the Tivat Music Festival and KotorArt ensemble in this production. There is a great atmosphere at the rehearsals and I believe that the audience will feel the energy that we create together. I am especially glad to be returning to the Tivat Music Festival, where I performed at its first edition. It is nice to see how ideas and dreams about the development of the opera scene in Montenegro are turning into reality today,” she said, adding that “the performance is witty, fast-paced and entertaining, without the burdensome form that audiences sometimes associate with opera.”

"I believe it will attract both younger and older audiences. I am especially pleased to be collaborating again with maestro Mladen Tarbuk, as well as working with director Paolo Tišljarić and colleague Jakov Kalajžić. It is interesting that for the first time I am sharing the stage as a professional with Matija Grabić, with whom I once attended the School of Acting." Petar Pejaković. "We really enjoy working with the Chamber Ensemble of the Boka Kotorska Symphony Orchestra and I hope that we will convey that energy to the audience," Radulović emphasized.

Young actor from Tivat, Matija Grabić, is part of the ensemble and shares his experience.

"My first real role in an opera was a silent role, the role of Vespone, Uberto's servant. At the very beginning of my career, right after the Academy, I had two episodic roles in operas, this is something completely different. We are in a great working environment and I am honored to be participating in the Tivat Music Festival and KotorArt, which are co-producing the piece 'La serva padrona'. I have known soprano Petra Radulović since childhood, so it is a great joy to work with her, and I met the young brilliant bass Jakov Kalajžić now and it is a real pleasure to be in the same project. Maestro Mladen Tarbuk is excellent and I am learning from him at all times. I have had an excellent collaboration with director Paolo Tišljarić, director of the Marin Držić Theatre in Dubrovnik. This is, I think, the fourth project we are working on together, and I hope it will not be the last. The team is so enthusiastic that almost no one takes a break, and when there is such an atmosphere, the project cannot fail to be good," Grabić pointed out.

Created in 1733 as an intermezzo to the opera “Il prigionier superbo”, “La serva padrona” soon outlived the work to which it originally belonged and became one of the most performed works in the history of opera buffa. It has been performed several times in Montenegro, recalls Grabić, who is a permanent member of the ensemble of the City Youth Theatre in Split.

"Pergolezi managed to write several great works during his short 26 years of life, so it could also be a moral lesson that we are neither old enough nor young enough to create great works, but we just need to be diligent enough and tackle creative things," Grabić believes.

He adds that his character communicates exclusively through gestures and facial expressions, and reveals how challenging this is for him.

"In school we learned that the hardest job on stage is to keep your mouth shut, so a lot of it is in gestures, in looks, in certain expressions. This is a great and interesting experience for me. 'La serva padrona' is a play for which we have to work seriously in order to deserve the audience's applause. I invite people from theater, culture and quality content to come to the premiere and discover the secrets and charms of The Servant Mistress," said Matija Grabić.

Almost three centuries after its creation, "The Mistress's Maid" continues to captivate audiences with its wit, simplicity, and vivid characters. The premiere in Tivat and the performance in Kotor will be an opportunity for the Boka Bay audience to rediscover why this work holds a special place in the history of opera buffa.

The Tivat Music Festival takes place from June 25th to August 15th at various locations in the city, under the general auspices of the Tivat Cultural Center.

Radulović: Every performance in your own country is a special inspiration

Petra Radulović is a Montenegrin soprano who has performed over twenty roles on opera stages. She was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Hanover State Opera, and has performed in many countries and theaters, including Theater an der Wien, the Mainz State Theater, the Schönbrunn Palace Theater in Vienna, the Verbier Festival, the Operosa Opera Festival, and other international events.

She studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts MDW in Vienna, where she completed her undergraduate and master's studies in opera. She has received numerous awards and scholarships, including the first scholarship from the Miloš Karadaglić Foundation.

Her repertoire includes, among other things, works by Mozart, Puccini, Bizet, Rossini, as well as contemporary composers. With international experience and love for the domestic audience, Petra Radulović is considered one of the most promising voices on the Montenegrin and European opera scene.

Montenegro holds a special place in her heart, where she happily performs at the KotorArt Festival, Budva Grad Theatre, Tivat Music Festival and the stage of the Montenegrin National Theatre.

Radulović emphasizes that every performance in her country is a special inspiration and an opportunity to share music with an audience that is close to her.

High artistic level and interpretative consistency of the BSO

The National Musical Ensemble "Boka Symphony Orchestra" is an artistic ensemble founded in Boka Kotorska with the mission of promoting and affirming symphonic music in the region, as well as uniting the most promising and prominent musicians from Montenegro and beyond. The orchestra's headquarters rely on the rich cultural heritage of Kotor, Tivat and Herceg Novi - towns of Boka Kotorska with a long and significant musical tradition. The orchestra brings together instrumentalists of different generations - from established artists and pedagogues to young talents - which encourages intergenerational exchange of knowledge and experiences, but also further strengthens the cultural life of Boka Kotorska.

In its artistic activities, the orchestra performs under the baton of the prominent composer and conductor Mladen Tarbuk, which ensures a high artistic level and interpretative consistency.

The orchestra's vision is to develop into a recognizable cultural brand of the region that will, through artistic quality, professionalism and continuity of work, contribute to the international affirmation of Boka Kotorska and Montenegro.