Vatroslav Lisinski – Grand Composer and His Temple of Music
The first Croatian opera
Vatroslav Lisinski was born as Ignatius Fuchs in 1819 to a German Jewish family. He later changed his name to Vatroslav Lisinski, which is a Croatian calque of his original name. He attended high school in Zagreb, where he also finished a two-year study of philosophy, and two years of law school in 1842. He got his elementary music education through private lessons with George Jay and J. K. Wisner Morgenstern. But, the first push for composing came from an amateur singer Alberto Ognjen Štriga, the supporter of the Illyrian movement who made Lisinski a conductor for his Illyrian Choral Society in 1841.
In the 19th century, Zagreb became a true cultural centre from which emerged aspirations for national liberation, because of the strong Hungarian nationalism during Austro-Hungarian rule. In the period from 1842 to 1847, Lisinski worked as a governor's board notary while extensively working on various musical works, especially the first Croatian opera "Love and Malice." The premiere of the opera in 1846 was marked by the celebration of the Illyrian idea, thus making Croats, after Germans and Russians, the third nation in Europe which got its national opera.
Image credit: Concert Hall Lisinski
Big disappointment
In the fall of 1847, he went to Prague for a musical training but due to exceeding the age limit, he could not enrol as a regular student at the Conservatory but only in the organ school while privately studying composition and instrumentation. In Prague, he composed a series of musical overtures and most of the opera "Porin", which was completed after returning to Zagreb. In 1850, he returned disappointed to Zagreb.
The Bach regime made people forget the national movement, so he spent his last years being creatively disputed, poor, disappointed and almost totally forgotten. Despite the Governor's request, he could not take the final diploma examination at the Prague Conservatory which prevented him from becoming a school teacher of the Croatian Music Institute. Later, he volunteered as a supervisor of classrooms. He quitted that job, started working temporarily for the judiciary, but before getting a permanent job, he suddenly fell ill and died in 1854 at the age of 35.
Image credit: Concert Hall Lisinski
A soft soul for hard notes!
Vatroslav Lisinski was among the most gifted composers of the Illyrian movement and the first Croatian professional musician who also laid the foundations of the national movement in Croatia, especially Croatian modern operas, solo songs, choral and orchestral music. He is the author of the first two Croatian operas and the first opera composer in the Slavic world after M. Glinka. He was a romantic lyric poet with a wide range of topics, from love songs and strong patriotism to meditations about social injustice, transience, religion, and death.
Lisinski got his own concert hall
The Zagreb Municipal Assembly, led by Mayor Veceslav Holjevac, decided in 1957 to build a concert hall. The construction of the hall began in 1961 and was finished in 1973. It was named after Vatroslav Lisinski, the composer of the first Croatian opera, "Love and Malice". It includes the Main Hall (1,874 seats), Small Hall (304 seats), four conference rooms, a large functional foyer (1,888 m² of horizontal and 300 m² of vertical exhibition space), and three snack bars.
Lisinski is visited annually by more than 760,000 visitors. The production and the organisation of superb musical and also numerous multimedia events have assured Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall the leading position in the concert activities of Croatia, as well as the immediate region. This temple of music is exceptionally aesthetically and acoustically designed, and features the latest technical equipment. Conceived as a multifunctional space, in addition to top concert events, the Hall organises film premieres, interesting exhibits, and is often the host to international congresses and meetings.
Image credit: Concert Hall Lisinski
Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall is also the home of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and the Croatian Radio & Television Symphony Orchestra. This hall has long surpassed the confines of Zagreb and Croatia and is now a place where Croatian culture encounters other cultures. During the past 38 years, Lisinski has organized and hosted an impressive number of world - class concerts and performances by top international soloists and ensembles in classical music, as well as some of the biggest names in pop and jazz (Tina Turner, Nick Cave, Ella Fitzgerald, Sting, Cesaria Evora, the Platters, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Juliette Gréco, etc).
In a desire to present the ultimate opera experience to the Croatian public, in January 2009 Lisinski inaugurated a new series, "The Met" at Lisinski, which presents live broadcasts of operas from the foremost opera house in the world, the New York Metropolitan Opera. Also, from the season 2015/2016, you can enjoy "Lisinski arioso" in which public can expect great evenings with the greatest opera stars.
Image credit: Concert Hall Lisinski
Ingeniousness lives on
The inevitable impression is that many misunderstood people, or those who are courageously ahead of their time, usually got their recognition after they were gone. Young Lisinski was a true music lover that could leave us, without a doubt, with many musical masterpieces. But, in reality, I can see that he continued his passion so widely and vividly through the beautiful concert hall that is huge enough to capture his rhythmic spirit and inspirational creativity. Although he was unknown throughout his life, his name will be written forever in history.
Header image credit: Marko Vrdoljak, Zagreb Tourist Board
Author: Josipa Zizic