Solisti, orkestar i zbor opere HNK Zagreb - Ivo Josipović: Lennon (2023)

The closing ceremony of this edition of MBZ, the opera Lennon, is organized in co-production with the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb, and its concept is full of many interesting features. Namely, Ivo Josipović, a prolific composer with a prominent political and legal career, despite the painstaking search for a librettist who would undertake such a demanding job, decided to write an opera dedicated to the phenomenon of John Lennon. The phenomenon, not the person, because Josipović is primarily interested in the artistic and socio-political implications of the existence of such a globally popular person as John Lennon. Describing him as a sociological phenomenon to the same extent as a musical icon, Josipović places him and the closest people from his life in the framework of an opera of five pictures, with a large symphony orchestra and choir. He chooses opera precisely because he sees it as the most flexible means for expressing his vision, and in developing its conception he is helped by the knowledge and experience he gained as a professor of criminal justice sciences and through wider dealing with social issues. The directing task was taken over by Marina Pejnović, the director who also prepared Berislav Šipuš's first opera at the previous MBZ, the choir and orchestra will be led by the well-known composer and conductor Ivan Josip Skender, and the libretto was tackled by an exceptional connoisseur of the life and work of John Lennon. Professor Marina Biti from the University of Rijeka.