Dubravka Šeparović Mušović

On 8 December 1980, a murder stirred the modern world. Britain’s most famous member of The Beatles was gunned down at the entrance to his residence in New York. What turned a fan into the killer of the man he adored? Composer Ivo Josipović - and none other than Croatia’s former President - has had a very rich musical career alongside one in politics. He has written over 50 chamber music pieces for various instruments, chamber orchestra and symphony orchestra as well as serving as director of the contemporary music festival, Music Biennale Zagreb. The fate of John Lennon has intrigued the composer and with librettist Marina Biti, the pair have created an opera built around the last days of the Beatle, the people who were important to him and a psychological profile of his murderer. For the world premiere at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, the conductor is Ivan Josip Skender and director Marina Pejnović.

To find a wife who truly loves him, a young trickster disguises himself as a pauper. But getting her parents' blessing will take every trick in the book. Part of the Croatian National Theatre’s repertoire since its premiere in 1935, Jakov Gotovac’s comic opera is an ode to a rural way of life. It culminates in a frenzied tempo with a vigorous ballet – a celebration of Dalmatian music and dance.

With the help of her daughter and a mute servant, phony psychic Madame Flora uses her clients' grief to deceive them. But one night, an uncanny encounter leads to murder and madness. Croatian National Theatre Zagreb’s production of The Medium offers enough suspense to rival any thriller in just one hour. Gian Carlo Menotti's musically eclectic English-language opera mixes Italian verismo with musical-like American modernity, as one might expect from a thoroughly American-Italian composer and man of theatre.