The Budapest State Opera is set to showcase 19th-century Croatian composer Ivan Zajc’s opera Nikola Šubić Zrinski (Miklós Zrínyi) on September 18, Director Szilveszter Ókovács has announced.
The opera tells the story of Hungarian-Croatian nobleman Miklós Zrínyi and the battle of Szigetvár in which he and his outnumbered troops tried to contain the advancing Ottoman forces commanded by Sultan Suleiman I, the Magnificent, in 1566.
The Budapest Opera will show the piece as part of the Hungarian state’s Zrínyi-Szigetvár 1566 Memorial Year commemorating the 450th anniversary of the event.
The masterpiece will be performed by the Croatian National Theatre of Osijek (Eszék), Ókovács said. Gordan Grlić Radman, the Croatian ambassador, described the three-act piece as his country’s most outstanding opera and Zrínyi the symbol of loyalty, courage and the love of homeland.
The chief patrons of the performance are Hungarian President János Áder and his Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.