Talented Montenegrin soprano Petra Radulović is slowly but surely building her career, although the bride has already managed to leave her mark on the opera scene around the world.
As a member of the Staatsoper Hannover opera studio from 2021 to 2023, Petra delighted the audience with roles such as Fraskita in Bizet's "Carmen" i Flore u Britten's "The Turn of the Screw". Her ability to adapt to different styles and genres has been proven in plays such as Humperdinkova ”Hansel and Gretel” i Mozart's "The Magic Flute".
In 2022, she made her debut at the prestigious Verbier Festival, while in previous years she performed at the Schönbrunn Palace Theater in Vienna and at the Operosa Montenegro Opera Festival. Petra worked with renowned directors and conductors, and her performances accompanied by orchestras such as the Appassionato Orchester and the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra further confirmed her exceptional talent.
Her repertoire spans a wide range of roles, from classical operas to contemporary works, including the German premiere of Evers' Humanoid and Glass's The Fall of the House of Usher. In addition to stage performances, Petra held a solo recital in Montenegro and was a guest soloist at the KotorArt Summer Festival.
As a scholarship recipient of the Miloš Karadaglić Foundation, Petra was given the opportunity to perform at the second Rubix festival, which will be held from August 8 to 10 in Tivat, and her performance will be a great introduction to the evening, where the star of the festival will perform her monodrama "Darwin's smile", actress and former model Isabella Rossellini.
Petra Radulović talks about her performance at the Rubix festival, as well as her career and plans for Vijesti...
This year you got the opportunity to perform at the Rubix festival with the string quartet "New Era". What can the audience expect and how difficult was it to prepare for the concert itself considering that you are in different countries?
I am looking forward to the performance at the Rubix festival and the opportunity to share a fantastic program with its audience. Preparing this concert was a great challenge for us, but also a great pleasure. Given that I live in Vienna, and the quartet is based in Trieste, I had to travel to Trieste so that we could have joint rehearsals and manage to prepare the program for the concert. The audience will have the opportunity to hear mostly well-known Italian melodies, but also compositions by a young Croatian composer and tenor Year of Radovan who composed the compositions especially for this occasion, and also wrote special arrangements for the string quartet.
Given that you also have experience with musicals, because you also have an incredible passion for acting and you had the opportunity to play in Minnesota, did you try to commercialize and adapt your performance at Rubix to the festival itself?
Rubix is a big challenge for us classical musicians, but I believe that we managed to adapt the program to the audience, and to share with the audience the music that we really do. The audience will enjoy Neapolitan, film, and classical melodies.
It is interesting that your performance will take place on the same evening as the performance "Darwin's smile", a monodrama by Izabela Roselini. Is that why the responsibility, and maybe the nervousness, is greater?
To be on the same stage where they will appear after you Isabella Rossellini it impresses a lot and is definitely very inspiring. Although it is a special responsibility, I would rather say that it is a huge inspiration.
You will perform at this event thanks to the fact that you are a scholarship recipient of the Miloš Karadaglić Foundation. How much does the support of a foundation like this, but also a classical music star like Miloš Karadaglić, mean to a young artist like you?
I am proud and honored to be one of the first scholarship recipients of the Miloš Karadaglić Foundation. This scholarship is very important for my artistic development, but also as a confirmation of my qualities. I am grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with an artist and a man like him Miloš and I am very happy about everything that lies ahead, considering that we have wonderful cooperation and communication.
The city you come from - Kotor has always been the cradle of many art festivals - theater and music. Was it because of this that it was easier to choose art as a child and to get the support of not only the family?
It is unnecessary to talk about it. Growing up in Kotor means growing up surrounded by art and beauty.
You studied in Vienna, trained at the Boston Arts Academy, had the opportunity to perform in places where art, like opera, is very expensive. In the Balkans, although we have great artists, we don't have so many festivals dedicated to this type of art, we don't even have an opera house, but we don't have the opportunity to often hear performers like you. Even when that happens, they often come from other ex-YU republics. How much does all this demotivate young artists like you?
We must not allow something like that to demotivate us, but quite the opposite, to motivate us to be the kind of change we want around us. We have a beautiful and inspiring country, and the development of culture can and must be worked on! I am proud and privileged to be part of the team of the first Tivat Music Festival, which has as one of its main goals the development of the audience with a focus on opera. My heart is full because this is not only a big step for the city of Tivat, but also for the development of musical culture in all of Montenegro. As an ambassador of this festival, I want to share my many years of foreign experience on and off the stage with our audience, by helping the festival team in developing the program and the audience.
Today, thanks to the Internet, art is available all over the world. However, even though performances from the Metropolitan Theater were once broadcast in cinemas, such events were rarely watched by the audience. For everything, especially art, the audience needs to be educated, but what is the best way to bring opera closer to the general public?
It was those live broadcasts from the Met that made me fall in love with opera. The opportunity to see every detail of phenomenal performances, but also to carefully observe the singer's technique. In Montenegro, we definitely have to work on audience development. We need to deal with current topics, break out of the mold, move the opera out of the typical framework and space of performance. Modern productions are what attract young audiences. A combination of traditional and contemporary.
For now, you yourself are gaining knowledge and experience, but are you ready one day to share the same with the younger generations?
I believe that I am already positively influencing the younger generation, but as for teaching at a university one day... Why not? I am of the opinion that knowledge and experience should be selflessly shared!
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