Ivan noble Zajc 

Rarely in the recent cultural history does an artist make a really visible difference in a musical life of one nation in a forty years' period. Ivan noble Zajc was one of those artists, and this is the mere reason why the period from 1870 until 1916 is called the period of Ivan noble Zajc in Croatian music.

Born in 1832 in Rijeka, Ivan noble Zajc started playing piano and violin at the age of 5, and started composing and performing at the age of 12 (he composed a short opera called Maria Teresa). All those were the reasons for committing his life to music and not to the law, like his father (who was a kapelmaster in the military) wanted him to. In 1850, with his father’s permission, he leaves for the conservatory in Milan (Italy) with his first twenty opuses.

He was a student taught by prominent composers and tutors, such as S. Ronchetti-Monteviti, L. Rossi and A Mazzucato. Zajc was very serious about his studies and he proved it with numerous awards, achievements and performances of his pieces, and especially with the invitation from Milan to work as a conductor in Scala in 1855, which happened after he graduated and his Tirolese opera premiered on stage. But Zajc, whose parents had already passed away, returned to Rijeka and made a significant contribution to the progress of the musical life in Rijeka. In the following six years, that were very productive for him as an author, Zajc worked at the musical school, the theater, church and he also composed, conducted, played piano and gave lessons to young musicians.

In the theater, Zajc conducted many grand opera pieces: Verdi’s Latin Trilogy (Traviata, Trovatore, Rigoletto in 1857), the year after he conducted Apollonio’s Ebreo, Verdi’s Aroldo, Ferrario’s Gli ultimi giorni di Suli, Donizetti’s Linda di Chamonix, and then Traviata again. 1860 was a year of his great success: besides conducting the operas La regina di Cipro (Pacini) and Marin Faliero (Donizetti), he put up and premiered his first opera (not counting the one he premiered after his graduation). His opera was called Amelia (Il Bandito) and was premiered in Rijeka’s theater on 14th April 1860. It was the first opera written by a domestic composer from Rijeka, his big success and a big happening for the city of Rijeka itself. His fellow citizens cheered his success loudly and gave him a painting (his portrait), that has been kept up to today and is the only painting presenting the author in his earlier years. However, this was not the only opera he wrote at that time. Soon after Zajc came back from Milan, parts from his Romilda opera (1856) were performed at concerts, and in 1858 he wrote two new operas that were not performed, called Adelia and Mesina’s Bride. In the end of his work in Rijeka, Vaudeville I funerali del Carnevale was performed, for which Ivan noble Zajc composed the music. Amongst numerous pieces he wrote in Rijeka, from the opus 80 until 152, the most were dedicated to his city of Rijeka and its citizens. Zajc called one waltz Die schöne Fiumanerin (La bella Fiumana), the other I Musicisti fiumani, then he wrote Vittoria quadrille (A beautiful Rijeka woman) and Fiumaner Marsche. However, his ambitions and a will for artistic development were pointing him to other directions. Rijeka started to be too small for his talent. On April 15th 1862 he wrote an official note to the magistrate that he decided to go elsewhere. On September 22nd he held a farewell ceremony in the theater, and in October he went to Vienna.

Vienna was under the influence of melodies from Strauss, Milöckera and Suppe, but Zajc became famous very fast and so his optimistic musical theater pieces, like Momci na brod (Guys on boat), Fitzli-Putzli, Lazaroni from Naples and others, and especially Witch from Boise, became very popular. At that time he joined the circle of Croatians in Vienna that was gathered around the Croatian Academic Society “Velebit” and found himself in a doubt whether to continue his career as a composer of operettas and musical comedies in Vienna, or to take a hard and responsible duty towards his country. Under the influence of a Croatian bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer, poets Petar Preradovic, Ivan Trnski, August Šenoa, Mirko Divković, as well as students Ivan Dežman and Franjo Marković he decided the latter and in the beginning of 1870 he came to Zagreb and became the director of the Opera, and also accepted the position of the head-master at the Croatian Musical Institute School where he worked until 1908. He worked as the director of the Opera until 1889 when it stopped working temporarily.

Together with the great ambition that he showed as a conductor and a teacher, in Zagreb he also developed a great energy as a composer, and wrote over a thousand opuses (from opus 234 to 1202). Amongst them he wrote operas Mislav, Ban Leget, Nikola Šubić Zrinjski, Lizinka, Pan Tvardovski, Zlatka, King’s caprice, First sin, Primorka, Galileo Galilei and Armida, and also operettas, numerous poems, choir, concert and chamber pieces, and also all sorts of artistic creation pieces.

The main essence of Ivan noble Zajc is his creation of modern Croatian opera in the time of musical stagnation in the country. With his modern musical repertoire he fought the musical dilettantism which was spread all over Croatia, and it was a hard task to accomplish.