Music shows man the possibilities of greatness that are in his soul. (E.R. Waldo).

Ivan

Dino

Unusual habits and experiences of the great Zajac.

Ivan Zajc was born in the family of Czech military chaplain and composer Jan Nepomuk Zajitz and Slovakian Anna Bodensteiner. They named him Ivanon Dragutina Stjepan, and he also had a younger sister, Albina.

As a child he lived in Rijeka. At first, he was taught music and composition by his father, and then by a local teacher. At the age of five, he started learning the piano and violin, and at the age of twelve, he started composing and performing independently. He had an unusual custom. Namely, while conducting, he would hold his short baton with his thumb from above, instead of from below as is correct.

Father wanted Ivan to become a lawyer. He didn't want to do music professionally because he thought that you couldn't make a good living from it. He even locked his piano every day so that he could not "waste time on music". It was his mother who supported Ivan's talent and, when his father was not at home, unlocked the instrument. But at the persuasion of a professor who recognized Zajc's talent for music, the father finally relented and sent his son to the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. When he arrived, he was assigned the room where Verdi used to stay.

There, Zajc continued to charm the professors with his talent. Later, his students said that Zajc first conceived the piece in himself and only then wrote the melody. He emphasized that a true composer must hear everything and that an instrument should not be used when creating. As a graduation assignment, all students had to compose an opera based on the same libretto. Zajc's opera in three acts - "La Tirolese" - was declared the best. To the rabbit. He was offered the position of conductor at the prestigious Teatro alla Scala. But unfortunate circumstances meant that he had to return to Rijeka without his diploma...

The childhood of the great composer

Composing for the famous Emperor Francis Joseph.

The talented composer Zajc's father and mother died while he was studying at the prestigious Milan Conservatory. Zajc, without graduating, returns to Rijeka to help his sister Albina. Then he took over his father's musical duties - he became the conductor of the orchestra and teacher of string instruments at the City Philharmonic Institute. Then he married Natalija Jasenko, the daughter of a Slovenian merchant, and soon a daughter Anka and a son Karmelo were born. Soon, the opera Amelia will be premiered in the theater in Rijeka, which is accompanied by the enthusiasm of the public. But the happiness did not last long. During the carnival, during the performance of an opera, Zajc suddenly fell ill. To the shock of everyone present, at the end of the work, Zajc just collapsed.

A local doctor came to his aid and took him home. He fell ill with severe pneumonia that lasted for several months. This is why he decided to change the climate and move to Vienna. There he got a job as a teacher and started composing operettas. One of them, called "Boys on board", was also liked by Empress Elizabeth, the wife of Francis Joseph. The queen personally requested that the operetta be performed in her summer residence. This shows how famous and accepted Zajc was in Vienna. Then why did he decide to return to the Motherland in the first place?

In Vienna, Zajc often socialized with Croatian intellectuals in emigration. He was greatly influenced by patriotic ideas. During his stay in Vienna, he received a letter from Petar Preradović, who wrote to him that the Croatian people lacked his talent. He invited him to return to Croatia with a great task - to create Croatian opera.

Returning from studies

The tireless composer and great opera "Ero s ona svijeta".

The famous Zajc, maestro of the opera, returns to Croatia in 1870. He comes to Zagreb, where he becomes the director of the Croatian Music Institute. In the same year, with the performance of Zajč's opera "Mislav", the construction of a permanent Zagreb opera begins. At that time Maestro was a real star. After the premier, his fans lit torches on the street, sang his songs and followed him home. His popularity was also increased by the fact that he carried out many reforms in Croatian musical art and its institutions. Already in the first period of his creation, he built a basic repertoire with about fifty opera works and a dozen operettas.

Zajc made a series of his works and successes thanks to tireless work. Already around four in the morning, he was sitting at his writing desk and composing. During that job, he would always play tunes. He would spend the rest of the morning and afternoon at the Music Institute and at the school where he taught. He had so many jobs and duties that, even in modern times, two people would barely get everything he needed through the day.

There are stories of how many directors of theaters and choirs came to Zajc to compose a composition for them. They would pay him a certain amount of money, and he would retire to his study for two hours while the clients waited drinking tea with his wife. After two hours, Zajc would return with a new and finished composition.

In 1876, the premiere of his opera Nikola Šubić Zrinski took place. This work is part of a historical-national trilogy with themes from Croatian history and historical legends. Maestro Boris Papandopulo best described the significance of this opera when he said: - There are operas and there is Zrinski. –

Due to his pedagogical and compositional work, Zajc left a great mark on Croatian music of the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. That is why this period in music is called the Zajc era. Zajc's popularity reaches so far that his harmonious "U boj, u boj!" is known and sung today even in Japan.

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The childhood of the great composer

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