Premiere of the chamber opera “Our Lady of the Rocks” (for three female voices, electronics and chamber ensemble), composer Irene Popovic Dragovic, commissioned by the Tivat Music Festival, will be held on August 12th in the DTV Partizan hall in Tivat, announced yesterday the organizers of the second Tivat Music Festival, which is organized by the TMF Foundation and under the auspices of the Tivat Cultural Center, and will last from June 18th to August 20th.
The libretto of the chamber opera "Our Lady of the Rocks", in which the past and the present, dream and reality alternate, permeated with the most beautiful verses of women's poetry, is signed by Jelena Novak, a musicologist dedicated to contemporary opera and author of significant professional publications.
The famous Jacinta tapestry, which tells a poignant story, is kept in the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rocks on the island of the same name in the Bay of Kotor. While waiting for her husband's return from sailing, Jacinta Kunic from Perast, she continuously embroidered the tapestry for 25 years. In addition to damask and pearls, she also wove strands of her own hair into it, hoping to embrace her beloved again, which, unfortunately, never happened. Jacinta gave her vow, a symbol of eternal love, to Our Lady in 1828. A quarter of a century of her anxiety, waiting and loneliness, one of the most moving legends of Boka, will be told by the soprano Natalija Radic, actress Dubravka Drakić i Doris Franovic, who interprets the voice of a girl. All the voices, together with the Boka ensemble, merge into a single cry of beings who are faithfully waiting. This opera is extremely important to the composer Irena Popović Dragović.
“At the invitation of the Boka chamber ensemble, last year I wrote an overture for the opera Our Lady of the Rocks, which they performed at the festival. I had a vision of it growing into an opera, and my wish came true, because the invitation soon followed and we expect the premiere in the summer. I will try to show through this opera the perseverance of a woman, who has the strength to wait with dignity and to be loyal to her love. Hair as a symbol of female strength has also served here for a manuscript, a tapestry that Jacinta left us as a legacy, not only to admire, but also to teach and educate new generations through it. I am also very excited about the nature of the surroundings, so some of the interludes will include original songs, into which our little Jacinta, and then a mature woman, will escape and seek solace. This story is very important to me intimately, because since I was little I spent every summer nearby, looking at Our Lady, and I have been thinking about this legend almost my entire life, and now, I believe, I am enough ripe to write something like this," said Popović Dragović.
Librettist Jelena Novak talks about the images that guided her while she was writing.
“At the beginning of the 19th century, Jacinta Kunić, an embroiderer and painter from Perast, began to create a painting with threads of silk, gold, silver and her own hair. While she embroiders, she whispers, sings and waits for her beloved. The religious-themed painting that had been in the making for a quarter of a century becomes a scene of desire, patience, faith, loyalty, dreaming and embraces that will one day, sometime, perhaps even take place in reality. With every movement of the needle, life increasingly becomes a play about living. The painting is a song that wants to be sung. The opera 'Our Lady of the Rocks' confronts a woman's writing, performed with the prick of a needle, with events from the outside world, framed by the sounds of the sea, rocks, sun, winds, scents and currents of Boka Bay. The voices of a girl, a singer and an actress form the choral face of a woman with gray hair and smiling eyes. The sounds of the cliffs of Our Lady of the Rocks, the stones in the sea, anchors, sailing, ropes, the sounds of departures and returns splash the needle pricks and the sung whisper vibrates forever", the librettist describes her inspiration.
The “Boka” ensemble, founded last year at the initiative of the TMF, premiered the overture to this opera at its first concert, which is now ready to be performed in its entirety. The pianist Marina Mikić She emphasized that continuing her collaboration with composer Popović Dragović is a great pleasure and honor for her.
The eighth Mikić at the piano will also perform at the concert. Nenad Jovanovic, violin, Tamara Knezevic, flute, Željko Ivović, cello.
The second Tivat Music Festival will be held from June 18th to August 20th at several locations in Tivat.
Bonus video:
