Love and Malice
| Love and Malice | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Vatroslav Lisinski | |
 |
|
| Native title | Ljubav i zloba |
| Librettist | Dimitrija Demeter |
| Language | Croatian |
| Premiere | 28 March 1846 Old City Hall in Zagreb |
Love and Malice (Croatian: Ljubav i zloba) is opera in two acts composed by Vatroslav Lisinski to a libretto by Dimitrija Demeter. It premiered on 28 March 1846 in Zagreb and is considered to be the first Croatian national opera. Its premiere had been delayed when the singer who was to take the leading male role was shot and seriously injured during the Austrian crackdown on Croatian nationalists in July 1845. Most of the protestors who were shot were (like the composer himself) adherents of the Illyrian Movement.
Members of the Illyrian movement thought for a long time that someone should write a Croatian national opera based on the first Slavic national opera A Life for the Tsar by Mikhail Glinka. Young Lisinski, author of music for reveille Prosto zrakom ptica leti (Bird flies freely through the air), seemed as a good choice.
Libretto for opera was written by Josip Car who based it on the idea of Alberto Ognjen Štriga. Libretto was then reworked by Dimitrija Demeter (who is considered to be its author), while the instrumentation was refined by JK Wisner Morgenstern, Lisinski's music teacher.
Events surrounding the July victims in the summer of 1845 delayed rehearsals and premiere for March of 1846.
When Lisinski and Demeter finished the Opera, they contacted Countess Sidonija Rubido, opera singer educated in Vienna. She got main role of Ljubica and performed on premiere and four more screenings in March and April 1846. After that, Countess Rubido was no longer publicly performing. She is remembered as the first Croatian opera singer.
After extensive preparations Opera was first performed on March 28, 1846 in the Old City Hall in Zagreb, ten years after Glinka's Life for the Tsar and twenty before Smetana's The Bartered Bride. Besides great success of the first performance and favorable social and cultural circumstances, Opera's protagonists also contributed to its popularity: Countess Sidonija Rubido as Ljubica, Franko Stazić (later known as Franz Steger, leading tenor of the Vienna Court Opera) as Vukosav, and Alberto Ognjan Štriga.
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