Josipović - Lennon (Zagreb, 2023)

Ivo Josipović - Lennon (Zagreb, 2023)

Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, 2023

Ivan Josip Skender, Marina Pejnović, Domagoj Dorotić, Dubravka Šeparović Mušović, Marija Kuhar Šoša, Ozren Bilušić, Kristina Anđelka Đopar, Sofia Ameli Gojić, Helena Lucić Šego, Siniša Galović, Dario Ćurić, Davor Radić, Siniša Hapač, Alen Ruško, Siniša Štork, Borko Bajutti, Noa Vlčev

OperaVision - 24th April 2023

In principle, I can see nothing wrong with the idea of writing a contemporary opera about someone like John Lennon. He was a major public figure, he made a huge impact on a generation of youth and left an indisputable musical legacy with the Beatles and as a solo artist that is still important and influential today. Or perhaps he really was a fake, as his assassin Mark Chapman believed when he shot him on the 8th December 1980, not that that is any reason for killing him. Either way, there is an interesting subject with several aspects of John Lennon's life and his relationship to music and social change that could be explored here through the inherently dramatic form of music theatre.

Composed by former Croatian President Ivo Josipović and premiered in 2023 at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, the early signs unfortunately are not a good indication that Marina Biti's libretto is going to delve too deeply into those contradictory viewpoints of a man who certain divides opinion. The opening scene for example goes straight to Chapman's shooting of Lennon on a New York street, where Lennon and Yoko Ono are here seen walking around among the people singing "Sky, swimming in the sky, swimming in the sky, Sky…". They are distracted by a shout of "John! John!" by a baseball hatted figure carrying a gun and a copy of The Catcher in the Rye. The music similarly follows predictable, repetitive patterns, suggesting that it's going to find it difficult to break out and show some new ideas from here on.

So where does the opera go after killing its lead character in the opening scene? Not in flashback, as you might think, or at least not in any conventional way, but in the feverish rush of the impressions of the past life of a dying man. Which you think should at least be an interesting way of exploring those contradictions of a life lived looking back with regret for opportunities missed or mistakes made. If only the libretto was capable of expressing this in a thoughtful way rather. The second scene however has a ghostly John in confusion about what has happened, uttering banalities, ("Am I in the sky?, Unthinkably high?, Or in the deepest deep of the sea? Am I awake or asleep? Am I a captive? Can I break free?") while Chapman (in Lennon's dream?) similarly barks out broad declarative justifications against "this self proclaimed Christ" "the fakest of kings on the fakest of thrones", "I killed you, I killed you, John I did, I did, I killed you, l killed you. I'm not sad... John is gone."

The remaining scenes take in what led up to John death in a rather random fashion, revealing little about the man or any motives Chapman might have had for killing him other than trot out the old cliché of "we are not all that different, me and you". Throughout, he remains haunted by visions of Chapman wanting to ensure his reputation is destroyed, dragged down underground, preventing him presumably from swimming in the sky? It is more of a post-death or pre-death (double) fantasy or musical fantasia. In principle, this could be a more interesting area to explore than trying to merely present a literal retelling of events, instead becoming a meditation on John Lennon's death and "afterlife" as a martyred musician. In practice - a preceding scenes have shown - the libretto isn't strong enough to delve that deeply.

It does at least manage to keep an effective flow as significant figures from Lennon's life arise to sympathise or berate him. He meets Stu Sutcliffe on the other side, in the house of light, the two of them mediating on how much they suffered. May Pang and Yoko have a tango a tre while John suggests giving peace a chance. "He liked the idea of revolution. He wanted peace but also change. Though sometimes such things can be hard to arrange". Mimi, the aunt who brings him up after death of mother appears, regressing Lennon to "want to be a child again" and state "Can my mummy not be dead?". Paul McCartney appears, offering to be a friend, Julian on the other hand begrudging of his father's lack of attention to him.

As unrevealing and uninspired as this approach to exploring the life of John Lennon is, it is also weirdly hypnotic in the music and in the stage production that plays up the otherworldly aspect of this death masque. Lennon, the principal singer and various multiple incarnations of him, is dressed in white, as are most of the other haunted chorus who guide him through these last moments of his life. The chamber orchestra conducted by Ivan Josip Skender is driven by piano and percussion, but capable of delivering otherworldly shimmering strings that build tension despite the failings of the libretto. 

The set designs by Ivan Lušičić Liik are impressive, with moving blocks and scaffolding framework shifting according to the flow of Lennon's wandering mind and the needs of the scene. The costume design is also effective even if older men look ridiculous in mop top wigs and collarless Beatles suits and the stage action, populated by a large chorus and numerous walk on figures well choreographed. The director Marina Pejnović does as well as can be done within the limitations of the drama and weak characterisation she has to work with in the libretto.

And unfortunately all efforts of the principal cast including Domagoj Dorotić as Lennon and Ozren Bilušić as Chapman to make something more of Lennon - and get to grips with some mangled English enunciation - prove futile while the intentions and purpose of the opera remain rather opaque. It gets rather meta when John decides to get everyone together and make an opera of it all, only for it to get taken over by Yoko Ono (an excellent Marija Kuhar Šoša) proclaiming that she is the star soprano. The injection of a little bit of self-referential humour in the production helps, but fails to redeem it.

Lennon remains an interesting idea with a novel approach to its subject - although not all that novel really since the meta-opera post-death reflection is also attempted in Fafchamps Is This The End? as well as Georg Friedrich Haas's Morgen und Abend - and there is surely something more Orphic that could have been done here with a musician in land of the dead situation. Lennon however seems to have similar failings to Is This The End? through a weak English libretto written by a presumably non-native speaker of the language. Stefan Herheim also showed in his astonishing reconstruction of La Bohème what can be done when you have a work strong enough to support such conceits, but Lennon unfortunately is devoid of any such poetry, insight, character or meaning.

Links: OperaVision, Croatian National Theatre

Gotovac - Ero the Joker (Zagreb, 2018)

Jakov Gotovac - Ero the Joker

Croatian National Theatre, Zagreb - 2018

Josip Šego, Krešimir Dolenčić, Valentina Fijačko Kobić, Stjepan Franetović, Dubravka Šeparović Mušović, Siniša Štork, Ljubomir Puškarić, Ana Zebić Kostel, Neven Mrzlečki

OperaVision - 2018

Even in a comic opera - sometimes especially in a comic opera - there is a grain of truth that illuminates the whole work. Ero the Joker by Jakov Gotovac is one of the best known and most performed works in the Croatian repertoire and the reason for it has much to do certainly with the popular folk melodies woven through it, its status as a national symbol of Dalmatian culture and its ability to entertain, but there are also a few essential truths in the work that attest to it power to endure and remain an important work since its premiere in 1935.

The time of Ero the Joker's creation is probably significant, as is the background of the opera's libretto. The work is seeped in the tradition, culture and folklore of the dramatist Milan Begović's home, the little village in Split-Dalmatia of Vrlika. His collaboration with composer Jakov Gotovac on Ero the Joker was a timely one, Gotovac, then director of the Croatian National Theatre was also interested in working with traditional music. Ero the Joker tapped into a particular mood of popular national romanticism popular in Croatia around the mid-1930s, as it was in other parts of Europe at the time, which although short-lived has nonetheless flourished and endured.

And, as it's performed in this long-running production by the Croatian National Teatre in Zagreb, you can see why it remains popular. Ero the Joker is a simple enough pleasure that is filled with the character and tradition of Croatia, not least in the colourful costume designs, the invigorating music with its roots in tradition, and the numerous opportunities it offers for lively dance melodies. There's no need for clever concepts, but the story and its telling retains a warmth and authenticity that has been elevated to the national stage by the composer and his librettist as a national treasure.

There's more than a grain of truth too in the storyline of Mića, the son of a wealthy landowner who assumes the identity of Ero from the Other World in order to win himself a bride. The manner of his disguise is certainly deceitful, but the intentions are good - or so he manages to convince the villagers when his ruse is uncovered by claiming that love must be entered into blindly (I imagine the high spirits of the music, drinking and dancing in Act III might play a part in allowing the villagers to turn a blind eye to his scheming), but he does manage to also connect with their troubles in some way and alleviate them. (Drinking, music and dance playing a part in that as well, no doubt).

It's in that connection with ordinary people and their troubles however that the warmth and truth of Ero the Joker lies. Mića certainly preys on the vulnerabilities of the women of the village, telling fortunes, claiming to bring messages from departed loved ones for Đula and her stepmother Doma in exchange for money and favours, but he also sympathises for the troubles of ordinary people, offering them the assurances they need to find the strength to go on, for the hope that they can makes their lives different and better. The men, led by Master Marko, the husband of Doma and father of Đula are less credulous; seeing him as a vagabond and swindler, they chase him out of town, but Ero is always one step ahead of them.

As a comic opera, Ero the Joker's primary purpose is to entertain and the Croatian National Theatre production certainly achieves that. The plotting isn't particularly complicated, but the humour undoubtedly relies on the national character types and the story's roots in folklore. The production, directed by Krešimir Dolenčić, emphasises this by dressing everyone in national costumes and setting them in the simplicity of the country locations, which is hardly original but certainly effective, particularly when it comes to Act III which is filled with the most wonderful dance music, the original folk melodies elevated though the score to an invigorating finale, and conducted as such by Josip Šego.

Although character evidently counts for much when representing such types in a comic opera, the singing is also good in this 2018 production in Zagreb, and some of the singing challenges are considerable. Most impressive is Valentina Fijačko Kobić as Đula, a singer who has great experience with this role, she sings the challenging range with great clarity and emotional involvement. Emotional involvement seems to be entirely absent unfortunately in the performance of Stjepan Franetović as Mića/Ero, but his singing of the role is sure and steady, again with lovely clarity, timbre and - perhaps more important as far as that element of truth is concerned, as well as winning over the village in the final Act - with sincerity. Sima the Miller, who falls victim to Ero's scheming while escaping from men of the village is sung with great character by Ljubomir Puškarić, and the roles of Doma and Marko are capably taken by Dubravka Šeparović Mušović and Siniša Štork.

Links: OperaVision Croatian National Opera in Zabreb,