Soloists:
Mara Nikšina Beneša, aristocrat from Dubrovnik, contralto – NATAŠA JOVIĆ TRIVIĆ
Made, Mare’s daughter, soprano – DRAGANA POPOVIĆ
Ore, Mare’s daughter, soprano – BRANISLAVA PODRUMAC
Pavle, Mare’s daughter, soprano – DUŠICA BIJELIĆ / MIRJANA MATIĆ
Lujo Lasić, sea captain, tenor – NENAD ČIČA
Kata, Mare’s maid, mezzo soprano – ALEKSANDRA ANGELOV
Vaso, merchant, baritone – ALEKSA VASIĆ
Sabo Šiškov Prokulo, aristocrat from Dubrovnik, tenor – LJUBOMIR POPOVIĆ
Luco Orsatov Volco, aristocrat from Dubrovnik, bass – MIODRAG MIŠA JOVANOVIĆ

Balet soloists: Ana Pavlović-Pešić, Jovan Veselinović, Tatjana Tatić, Jovica Begojev, Maja Stojakov, Dejan Kolarov, Milena Ogrizović, NikolaTomašević

Balet ensemble
MADLENIANUM Orchestra, concertmaster: Vesna Janssens

Premiere of the opera of the Serbian composer Stevan Hristić, The Twilight, produced by the Madlenianum Opera and Theatre, represents a truly remarkable project, ongoing for two years. During this period the Serbian Musicological Society has provided typesetting and editing of the score and piano reduction of this opera, which had been performed for the last time in 1954 at the National Theatre in Belgrade.
The Twilight is the second opera by a Serbian composer to be brought to stage in Belgrade (the first one being At Dawn by Stanislav Binički). The opera was written in 1923, premiering in 1925.
This new production of The Twilight will include a ballet divertissement which Hristić wrote during 1953-1954. This ballet “act“ was long considered lost – the only existing record was kept in the Sound Archive of the Radio Belgrade. The only two recent performances of The Twilight, at the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad, in 1994 and 2001, were set to stage without the ballet act.
The Twilight, the only opera Stevan Hristić managed to complete, occupies a very particular aesthetic position in the history of the Serbian music-stage works, intertwining elements of the veristic music drama with those belonging to the impressionist music language. It is deemed one of the best Serbian operas in general, created by one of the most prominent composers of the interwar period.

Stevan Hristić was born in Belgrade in 1885. He received his music education at the famous University of Music and Theatre Leipzig. Before the start of the World War I he lived in Moscow, Paris and Rome.
Versed in the tendencies in music and style in Europe between the wars, yet also relying on the tradition of the Serbian music romanticism and its national colour, he created a particular music language, distinguished by a combination of folklore, late-romantic and impressionist elements, which is also why his music could easily speak to a versatile audience. His most prominent works include ballet The Legend of Ohrid, oratorio Resurrection, opera The Twilight and Opelo in b-flat minor.
His most important contribution to the development of the cultural life of Serbia was the founding and running of the Belgrade Philharmonic. He was also the director of the Belgrade Opera from 1924 to 1935. He was one of the founders and first professors of the Music Academy (Faculty of Music today) in 1937, and was also its director for a while. After World War II he cofounded the Composers’ Association of Serbia. He was one of its earliest presidents, as well as the first president of the Composers’ Association of Yugoslavia. He died in Belgrade in 1958.

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