Ero S Onoga Svijeta
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''Ero s onoga svijeta'' (usually translated as ''Ero the Joker'', literally ''Ero from the other world'') is a Croatian
comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...
in three acts by
Jakov Gotovac Jakov Gotovac (; October 11, 1895October 16, 1982) was a Croatian composer and conductor of classical music. His comedic opera, '' Ero s onoga svijeta'' (''Ero the Joker''), Croatia's best-known opera, was first performed in Zagreb in 1935. ...
, with a
libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...
by
Milan Begović Milan Begović (; January 19, 1876 – May 13, 1948) was a Croatian novelist, playwright, translator, and lyricist. Biography Begović was born in Vrlika, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1876, the so ...
based on a
folk tale Oral literature, orature, or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung in contrast to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used va ...
. The genesis of the opera was at Vrlička Česma in the town of
Vrlika Vrlika is a small town in inland Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia. The closest large towns are Sinj, Knin, and Drniš. Vrlika was given the status of town in 1997. Vrlika is an underdeveloped municipality which is statistically classified as the Ar ...
, a hometown of Milan Begović. According to Croatian musicologist Josip Andreis, ''Ero s onoga svijeta'' is "not only the most successful Croatian comic opera to this day, but also the only Croatian opera with a presence in the theaters abroad". American musicologist and music critic Ralph P. Locke described it as one of two major Croatian operas, alongside ''
Nikola Šubić Zrinski Nikola IV Zrinski or Miklós IV Zrínyi (, ; 1507/1508 – 7 September 1566), also commonly known as Nikola Šubić Zrinski (), was a Croatian- Hungarian nobleman and general, Ban of Croatia from 1542 until 1556, royal master of the treasury ...
''.


Characters

* Marko, ''rich peasant'',
bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...
* Doma, ''his second wife'',
mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...
* Đula (Djula), ''Marko's daughter from the first marriage'',
soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...
* Mića (Ero), ''young man from the nearby village'',
tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...
* Sima, ''millman'',
baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...
* Shepherd boy, child soprano * A young man, tenor * girls (6
solo Solo or SOLO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Characters * Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character * Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''Star Wars Legends'' continuity * Kylo Ren (Ben Solo), a ''Star Wars'' character * Napoleon Solo, fr ...
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 is a mountain range in the Dinaric Alps, located on the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. It has four major mountains or peaks, from north-west to south-east: * Ilica or Ujilica (1,654 m) * Sinjal or Dinara (1,831 m), epony ...
mountain in
Herzegovina Herzegovina ( or ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Hercegovina, separator=" / ", Херцеговина, ) is the southern and smaller of two main geographical Regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Bosnia (reg ...
, 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 Theatre in Zagreb The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb (), commonly referred to as (), is a theatre, opera and ballet house located in Zagreb. Overview The theatre evolved out of the first city theatre opened in 1834, housed in the present-day Old City Hal ...
, 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 the opera was nicely received by the audience. In ''Novosti'' ( hr), described the opera in superlatives, and in '' Belgrade Pravda'' Stražičić shared this positive sentiment. An often-quoted dismissive opinion ("And again a Croatian composer wrote an opera in vain") allegedly found in Lujo Šafranek-Kavić's review in ''
Jutarnji list () is a Croatian daily newspaper based in Zagreb. It was published on 6 April 1998 by EPH (Europapress holding, owned by Ninoslav Pavić), which eventually changed its name in Hanza Media after being bought by Marijan Hanžeković. The newspap ...
'', a Zagreb-based newspaper, has been found by recent research to be a fabrication. The actual review was generally very positive, with Šafranek-Kavić giving particular praise to Gotovac's score, while having reservations about the quality of the libretto. ''Ero the Joker'' saw its first performance outside
Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...
in
Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...
,
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
, translated into
Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...
in 1936, and after that it came back to the National Theater (''Narodno pozorište'') in
Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
, 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 ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; #Name, see below for other names) is the List of cities in Serbia, second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannoni ...
where it has been put on five times since. All totaled, Ero the Joker has found its way to the stages of more than 80 world theaters, and has been translated into 9 languages. Between 1935 and 2010 it has seen 660 performances in the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb alone.


Synopsis


Act I

On the threshing floor of a rich peasant, Marko, young women are singing while threshing grain. Only master Marko's daughter Djula is sad because her mother had died and her stepmother, Doma, does not care for her at all. Djula's voice awakes Mića, a young man whom nobody knows. While the women are comforting Djula and starting to sing again, Mića slides down from a big haystack on which he had been lying unnoticed - as if he had fallen from the sky. The superstitious women believe him when he says: "I am Ero from another world!" He starts weaving a story about life "up there" and delivering messages from their deceased loved ones. Djula's stepmother comes out and complains about their idleness. However, Mića convinces her to return to the kitchen by deceit. Left alone with Djula, he tells her that her late mother has chosen him to be her husband. While they are discussing how to get her father, Marko, to consent to their marriage, her father himself appears and drives Mića off, refusing to give shelter to the scoundrel. Doma, who had also heard of this young man from "another world", seeks out Mića and asks him about her late husband, Matija. Mića tells her that, having heard about her new marriage and her lack of respect for him, Matija is furious. Mića adds that his pockets are empty and Doma, in a pang of conscience, hands him a sock full of gold coins to give to Matija when he sees him next. Mića joyfully leaves. However, when Marko finds out about the money, he gathers men to go after Mića.


Act II

At the local mill, Sima, the miller, mills and sings joyfully as the women start gathering. Each one of them claims to be in a rush and Sima doesn't know how to please them all. When Doma arrives with Djula, she insists they be served at once, which leads to an all-round quarrel. Djula tries to calm her stepmother down, but Doma doesn't listen and leaves fuming. Djula laments after her ill fate and Sima comforts her before she leaves with the other women. Then, we see Mića on the run. He had disguised himself as a miller's apprentice. When the angry mob catches up with him, they are unable to recognize him and Mića tells them he had seen someone running towards the mountains. The mob decides to leave their horses behind and continue the pursuit on foot. Then, Djula appears, and Mića assures her that he had taken the coins just to make as a ruse, and then persuades her to run away with him. When Marko and men return, a young shepherd informs them that he saw Mića and Djula fleeing on Marko's horse.


Act III

At the fair, a throng howls cheerfully. Marko and Doma arrive quarrelling, since he does not want to give her any money for shopping. She leaves exasperated. Sima, the miller, approaches Marko and tells him that Djula had married a rich boy from the neighbouring village with whom she now lives happily. Djula longs to see her father again, but Mića refuses to take her home without Marko's invitation. Marko agrees to send for them, and when Mića and Djula arrive, the villagers give them a warm reception. Finally, Mića decides to tell his true story. Following his mother's advice, he left home pretending to be a poor boy, hoping to find a girl who will love him simply for who he is. He gives back Marko's horse and hands him the gold coins he had taken from him, and asks for Marko's blessing. Marko forgives him and is happy for the young couple. A big celebration erupts and the story comes to an end with a great kolo finale.


Famous musical numbers

*''Vidjele ste, sidjoh odozgora'' – ''You've seen it, 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 bubbling, millstones are 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
horus Horus (), also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor () in Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and t ...
– III Act) *''Oj! Što su mome, Ero, za kradenje'' – ''Hey! Are girls meant to be stolen, Ero'' (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 in the skies'' (Finale – Dance
horus Horus (), also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor () in Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and t ...
– III Act)


References


Sources

* {{Authority control Croatian-language operas Operas by Jakov Gotovac 1935 operas Operas