Ero s onoga svijeta
Encyclopedia
Ero s onoga svijeta is a comic opera
in three act
s by Jakov Gotovac
, with a libretto
by Milan Begović
based on a folk tale. The genesis of the opera was at Vrlička Česma in the town of Vrlika
, a hometown of Milan Begović.
The opera takes place in a small town, somewhere in the plain at the foothill of Dinara
mountain in Herzegovina
, in early autumn.
(Hrvatsko narodno kazalište) in Zagreb
, and the opera has since become the most performed work of South Slavic music literature.
The first performance was conducted by Gotovac himself, and he felt that opera was nicely received by the audience. But, in Jutarnji list
, a Croatian newspaper, Lujo Šafranek Kavić wrote that one Croatian composer wrote another opera in vain. Contrary to this, in Novosti
Milan Katić described the opera in superlatives, and in Belgrade Pravda paper Stražičić shared the positive sentiment.
Ero the Joker saw its first performance outside Yugoslavia
in Brno
, Czechoslovakia
, translated into Czech
in 1936, and after that it came back to the National Theater (Narodno pozorište) in Belgrade
, Yugoslavia on April 17, 1937. It was next put on stage more than ten years later, on February 27, 1948 in the Serbian National Theatre (Srpsko narodno pozorište) in Novi Sad
where it was put on five times since. All totaled, Ero the Joker found its way to the stages of more than 80 world theaters, and was translated to 9 languages.
Gotovac and Begović found the basics for the opera's music and text in the folklore of many South Slavic groups, ranging from Dalmatia
n folklore (Opera Finale) to songs from Kosovo
(opening chorus Duni mi, duni, lađane).
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in three act
Act (theater)
An act is a division or unit of a drama. The number of acts in a production can range from one to five or more, depending on how a writer structures the outline of the story...
s by Jakov Gotovac
Jakov Gotovac
Jakov Gotovac was a Croatian composer and conductor of classical music. He is the author of the most famous Croatian opera, the comic Ero s onoga svijeta , which first played in Zagreb in 1935....
, with a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Milan Begović
Milan Begovic
Milan Begović was a Croatian writer, born in Vrlika, in the territory of today's Croatia.He was educated in Split, Zagreb and Vienna and spent some time as high school professor in Split before going to Hamburg and Vienna to pursue career in theatre. He died in Zagreb...
based on a folk tale. The genesis of the opera was at Vrlička Česma in the town of Vrlika
Vrlika
Vrlika is a small town and municipality in inland Dalmatia, Croatia. The closest large towns are Sinj, Knin, and Drniš. The town of Vrlika has a population of 959, while the municipality has a population of 2,705 . There are 2,670 Croatian speakers, 16 Serbian speakers and 19 speakers of other...
, a hometown of Milan Begović.
Characters
- Marko, rich peasant, bassBass (voice type)A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...
- Doma, his second wife, mezzo soprano
- Đula, Marko's daughter from the first marriage, sopranoSopranoA soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
- Mića (Ero), young man from the nearby village, tenorTenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
- Sima, millman, baritoneBaritoneBaritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
- Shepherd boy, child soprano
- A young man, tenor
- girls (6 soloSolo (music)In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
s), women (8 solos), men, shepherds, fruit-merchants (4 solos), merchants (4 solos), children and other village people.
The opera takes place in a small town, somewhere in the plain at the foothill of Dinara
Dinara
Dinara is a mountain located on the border of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of its summits, also called Dinara, is the highest point in Croatia at 1,831 m and a prominence of 728 m.-Etymology:...
mountain in Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
, in early autumn.
Orchestra
- 3 Flauti (III muta in Piccolo), 2 Oboi, Corno Inglese, 3 Clarinetti, 2 Fagotti (II muta in Contrafagotto)
- 4 Corni in F, 3 Trombe in C, 3 Tromboni, Tuba
- Timpani, Percussioni, Arpa, Pianino
- I Violini, II Violini, Viole, Violoncelli, Contrabassi
- Sul palco: Organo
History
Composition of the opera began on October 10, 1932 and progressed in three stages, being finished on May 8, 1935. The first performance was on November 2, 1935 at the Croatian National TheatreCroatian National Theatre
The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb , commonly referred to as HNK Zagreb, is a theatre located in Zagreb, owned and operated by the Ministry of Culture. The theatre evolved out of the first city theatre built in 1836 housed in the present-day Old City Hall...
(Hrvatsko narodno kazalište) in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, and the opera has since become the most performed work of South Slavic music literature.
The first performance was conducted by Gotovac himself, and he felt that opera was nicely received by the audience. But, in Jutarnji list
Jutarnji list
Jutarnji list is a daily newspaper in Croatia with a circulation of about 115,000 copies.It was launched in April 1998, becoming the first successful Croatian daily newspaper to appear since the 1950s. It was named after a Zagreb daily that used to circulate before WW2...
, a Croatian newspaper, Lujo Šafranek Kavić wrote that one Croatian composer wrote another opera in vain. Contrary to this, in Novosti
Novosti
Russian International News Agency ' is a Russian state-owned news agency based in the capital Moscow.-Overview:The agency publishes news and information about social-political, economic, scientific and financial subjects on the Internet and via e-mail in the main European languages, as well as in...
Milan Katić described the opera in superlatives, and in Belgrade Pravda paper Stražičić shared the positive sentiment.
Ero the Joker saw its first performance outside Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
in Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, translated into Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
in 1936, and after that it came back to the National Theater (Narodno pozorište) in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Yugoslavia on April 17, 1937. It was next put on stage more than ten years later, on February 27, 1948 in the Serbian National Theatre (Srpsko narodno pozorište) in Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
where it was put on five times since. All totaled, Ero the Joker found its way to the stages of more than 80 world theaters, and was translated to 9 languages.
Gotovac and Begović found the basics for the opera's music and text in the folklore of many South Slavic groups, ranging from Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
n folklore (Opera Finale) to songs from Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
(opening chorus Duni mi, duni, lađane).
Act I
At the threshing floor of a rich peasant Marko, young women are singing while crumbling corns. Only master Marko’s daughter Djula is sad: her mother died and her stepmother, Doma, does not care for her at all. Djula’s voice awakes Mica, a young man whom nobody knows. While women are comforting Djula and start singing again, he slides down from a big haystack on which he has been lying unnoticed – as if he fell from the sky. Superstitious women believe him when he says: “I am Ero from another world!” He starts dragging out a story about the life up there, delivering messages from their deceased ones. Djula’s stepmother comes out and grumbles about their laziness. However, Mica sends her back into the kitchen by deceit, and thus, being left alone with Djula, tells her that her late mother has chosen him to be Djula's husband. While they are discussing how to make her father Marko give his consent to their marriage, father himself comes and drives Mica off, refusing to give shelter to a scoundrel. However, there is Doma, who has also heard about a young man from another world, so, after Marko leaves, she makes inquiries after her late husband Matija. Having heard that he is angry about her new marriage, her lack of respect for him and that his pockets are empty, she, under a pang of conscience, gives Mica a sock full of golden coins to give to Matija when he sees him. Ero joyfully leaves. However, when Marko finds out about the money, he gathers men to go after him.Act II
In the mill. Sima, the miller, mills and sings joyfully until women crowd: each one is in a rush and he does not know how to please them. When Doma arrives with Djula insisting to be served at once, a quarrel bursts out. Djula tries to calm her stepmother down, but she turns against her and leaves furiously. Djula laments after her ill fate; Sima is comforting her and she leaves with women. But, here is Mica, running away. He disguises himself into a miller’s apprentice and meets the pursuit crying: yes, he has seen the swindler running towards the mountains! They leave their horses and continue the chase on foot. Djula comes back and he assures her that he took the coins just to make a joke out of it, and he persuades her to run away with him. When Marko and men return, a young shepherd comes informing them that he saw Mica and Djula running away riding Marko’s horse.Act III
At the fair. Throng, howls and cheerfulness. Marko and Doma arrive quarrelling since he does not want to give her money for shopping. She leaves furiously. Sima, the miller, approaches Marko, telling him that Djula, in fact, married a rich boy from the neighbouring village and that they live a happy life. She is longing after her father, but Mica does not want to come unless Marko invites him. Marko agrees to send for him, and when Mica and Djula arrive dressed up, people give them a warm reception. And everything becomes clearer: following mother’s advice, Mica, pretending to be a poor boy, went to find a girl who will love him for what he is. Now, he is ready to give back the horse and money and he only asks for Marko’s blessing. Marko is happy for them and a big celebration begins, with a great round-dance in its finale.Famous musical numbers
- Vidjele ste, sidjoh odozgora - You've seen, I've come from above (Mića's aria - I Act)
- Ja sam ti o Gjurgjevu dne - It was I who on St George's Day (Duetto of Mića i Djula - I Act)
- Brblje voda, žrvnji rokću - Water's bubling, millstone's grunting (Sima's arioso - II Act)
- Majko, majčice - Mother, o sweet mother (Djula's aria - II Act)
- Žene, đerdan, marame, šudari - Women, here's necklace, scarves, earrings (Sellers at Fair [chorus] - III Act)
- Oj! Što su mome, Ero, za kradenje - Hey! Aren't girls for stealing (Entrance of Mića and Djula - III Act)
- Ti znaš, Mića, kad sam djete bila - You know, Mića, when I was a child (Djula's aria - III Act)
- Mene moja majka svjetovala - My mother advised me (Mića's arioso - III Act)
- Što na nebu sja visoko - What's that shining high on heaven (Finale - Dance [chorus] - III Act)]