Organization

Conductor

Matija Fortuna

Stage director

Livija Pandur

Set designer

Paolo Tišljarić

Costume designer

Leo Kulaš

Lighting designer

Vesna Kolarec

Video designer

Ivan Lušičić

Translator

Mate Maras

Singer

Mezzo-soprano

Kora Pavelić

HNK Varaždin

Orchestra

Varaždin Chamber Orchestra

Croatian

Pjesma iz buke: Životi i smrti Isabelle Eberhardt

Varaždin

Croatia

Pjesma iz buke: Životi i smrti Isabelle Eberhardt: Concert

Public

Concert

Approved

This "song of anger, indignation, anger, fury, commotion..." gives voice to the history of one of the first truly modern women, as the subtitle says: "the lives and deaths of Isabella Eberhardt". The vivid life of Eberhardt's libretto suggests only succinctly and indirectly, and thus, without a systematic operatic narrative sequence, Song from the Uproar is more like a longer monodrama for mezzo-soprano that portrays the adventurous life of this rebel, structured as a series of vignettes depicting important moments of Isabella's life. Therefore, this presentation is just a summary of the life path of the adventurous Swiss traveler and writer. 

They compare her to Arthur Rimbaud or to the female Lawrence of Arabia. He shares with the first the same rebellious character, adolescent disdain for conventions, love for absolute freedom and tendency to excesses of all kinds, which he expresses in texts reminiscent of poets. With Lawrence of Arabia, she has in common a thirst for the absolute, a tendency to test the limits of her own physical resistance bordering on masochism, an irresistible attraction to the Orient and a love for the desert.

Isabelle Eberhardt died in 1904 in Algeria, at the age of 27. She drowned in the ruins of her house, which was swept away by the violent torrent of a flash flood. For the previous seven years, she traveled the length and breadth of that country, leaving it only for short stays in Tunisia, Geneva, Paris, Marseille or Sardinia. She traveled dressed, not disguised, in male Arab clothing under the identity of a young Bedouin, often in harsh conditions, sleeping on the ground and sharing food with the local population. Her favorite company were shepherds, nomads, soldiers, prostitutes, legionnaires. Her romantic life inspired this opera, two films, three plays, a comic and three romanticized biographies. Four more factual biographies were also published.

She was born in Geneva in 1877 as the illegitimate daughter of Natalia Eberhardt, a pianist divorced from a Russian aristocrat and an imperial general, who lived in a free relationship with her children's tutor, a former Armenian crucifix exiled from Russia, converted to socialism under the influence of Tolstoy and Bakunin, for who is assumed to be Isabella's father for sure. In addition to French and Russian, Isabelle learned German, Italian, Greek, Latin and Arabic almost by the way at home. As an adolescent, she began to correspond with an old Egyptian scholar, and with a young French officer stationed in Algeria. Bored with life in Geneva, disturbed by the departure of her beloved brother Augustin, who had enlisted in the Foreign Legion, with whom she made plans to discover North Africa,

Thus, at the age of nineteen, he went to Algeria, plunged into the Algerian and then the Tunisian Muslim world and converted to Islam, indulged in erotic experiences which are not the least important aspect of that life in constant challenges. The complete freedom of her love habits scandalized the Europeans there even more than the local population. She was "incapable of moderation in anything," as one of her biographers notes. She travels through the Sahara, meets, loves and then marries an Algerian cavalry non-commissioned officer. He spends a long time in the south of Algeria, in male Sufi communities among the most respected Islamic doctors, under the male name of Si Mahmoud. By adopting a masculine lifestyle rather than denying her gendered female role, doing so in a different culture, Isabelle Eberhardt truly transgressed social conventions in the context of her time.

In addition, due to financial need, she became a journalist and collaborated with an Arabophile newspaper, as a war reporter on the unrest near the Moroccan border. She kept a diary about her adventurous life, which was published long after her death, as were all her texts, novelistic and travel writings, bound into collections only posthumously.

It is certain that for Isabelle Eberhardt, life and work are closely connected, but perhaps not to the extent that the latter is a simple reflection of the former. It seems that this opera is the first mention of this author in a Croatian context, because library catalogs do not record any Croatian translations of her texts. If not for literary reasons, then at least for women's history, this is an opportunity to introduce Isabelle Eberhardt into the circle of Croatian culture.

English

Ova „pjesma iz ljutnje, ogorčenja, srdžbe, jarosti, meteža…“ daje glas povijesti jedne od prvih istinski modernih žena, kao što to i podnaslov kaže: „životi i smrti Isabelle Eberhardt“. Živopisni život Eberhardtove libretto te opere sugerira tek jezgrovito i neizravno, i tako bez sustavnog opernog narativnog slijeda Song from the Uproar više sliči duljoj monodrami za mezzosopran koja portretira pustolovni život ove buntovnice, strukturiranoj kao niza vinjeta što oslikavaju važne trenutke Isabellina života. Stoga je i ovaj prikaz tek sažetak životnog puta pustolovne švicarske putnice i književnice. 

Uspoređuju je s Arthurom Rimbaudom ili sa ženskim Lawrenceom od Arabije. S prvim dijeli isti buntovnički karakter, adolescentski prezir prema konvencijama, ljubav prema apsolutnoj slobodi i sklonost ekscesima svih vrsta, što izražava u tekstovima koji podsjećaju na pjesnikove. S Lawrenceom od Arabije zajedničko joj je žeđanje za apsolutom, sklonost iskušavanju granica vlastite fizičke otpornosti koja graniči s mazohizmom, neodoljiva privlačnost prema Orijentu i ljubav prema pustinji.

Isabelle Eberhardt umrla je 1904. u Alžiru, u dobi od 27 godina. Utopila se u ruševinama svoje kuće koju je odnijela silovita bujica nagle poplave. Prethodnih sedam godina proputovala je tu zemlju uzduž i poprijeko, napuštajući je samo radi kratkih boravaka u Tunisu, Ženevi, Parizu, Marseilleu ili na Sardiniji. Putovala je odjevena, ne prerušena, u mušku arapsku odjeću pod identitetom mladog beduina, često u teškim uvjetima, spavala na tlu i dijelila hranu s lokalnim stanovništvom. Omiljeno društvo bili su joj pastiri, nomadi, vojnici, prostitutke, legionari. Njezin romantični život inspirirao je ovu operu, dva filma, tri predstave, strip i tri romansirane biografije. Objavljene su još i četiri više faktualne biografije.

Rođena je u Ženevi 1877. kao izvanbračna kći Natalije Eberhardt, pijanistice rastavljene od ruskog aristokrata i carskog generala, koja je živjela u slobodnoj vezi s kućnim učiteljem svoje djece, bivšim armenskim raspopom izgnanim iz Rusije, preobraćenim na socijalizam pod utjecajem Tolstoja i Bakunjina, za kojeg se pretpostavlja da je prilično sigurno Isabellin otac. Uz francuski i ruski, Isabelle je kod kuće gotovo usput naučila njemački, talijanski, grčki, latinski i arapski. Još u adolescentskoj dobi počela se dopisivati s nekim starim egipatskim učenjakom, te s mladim francuskim časnikom stacioniranim u Alžiru. Dosađujući se životom u Ženevi, uznemirena odlaskom voljenog brata Augustina koji se bio unovačio u Legiju stranaca, i s kojim je kovala planove o otkrivanju sjeverne Afrike, odlučila se sama upustiti u pothvat koji je kasnije predstavila riječima: „Ja, kojoj mirna sreća u nekom europskom gradu nikada neće biti dovoljna, skovala sam smion plan koji sam mogla i ostvariti, da se naselim u pustinji i u njoj potražim ujedno mir i pustolovine, što nije nepomirljivo s mojom neobičnom prirodom.“

Tako, s devetnaest godina odlazi u Alžir, uranja u alžirski, a zatim i tuniški muslimanski svijet i preobraća se na islam, prepušta erotskim doživljajima koji nisu najmanje važan aspekt tog života u stalnim izazovima. Potpuna sloboda njezinih ljubavnih navada skandalizirala je tamošnje Europljane još više nego domaće stanovništvo. Bila je „nesposobna za umjerenost u bilo čemu“, kako to bilježi jedna njezina biografkinja. Putuje Saharom, upoznaje, voli i zatim se udaje za alžirskog konjaničkog podoficira. Dulje vremena provodi na jugu Alžira, u muškim sufističkim zajednicama među najuglednijim islamskim doktorima, pod muškim imenom Si Mahmoud. Usvajajući muški način života, a ne poričući svoju rodno određenu žensku ulogu, čineći to u drugoj kulturi, Isabelle Eberhardt odista je prekoračila društvene konvencije u kontekstu svog vremena. Za razliku od svojih europskih suvremenica koje su nosile mušku odjeću, ona je s tom odjećom odabrala drukčiji način života, drugu civilizaciju, drugu duhovnost.

K tome, iz novčane potrebe postaje novinarka i surađuje s jednim arabofilskim novinama, kao ratna izvjestiteljica o nemirima u blizini marokanske granice. O svom je pustolovnom životu vodila dnevnik, koji je objavljen mnogo poslije njezine smrti, kao što su uostalom i svi njezini tekstovi, novelistički i putopisni zapisi, ukoričeni u zbirke tek posthumno.

Sigurno je da su kod Isabelle Eberhardt život i djelo usko povezani, ali možda ne do te mjere da je potonje jednostavan odraz prvoga. Čini se kako je ova opera prvo spominjanje te  autorice u hrvatskom kontekstu, jer katalozi knjižnica ne bilježe nijedan hrvatski prijevod njezinih tekstova. Ako već ne zbog književne, onda je bar zbog ženske povijesti ovo prilika da se Isabelle Eberhardt uvede u krug hrvatske kulture.

hrvatski

Pjesma iz buke: Životi i smrti Isabelle Eberhardt by Various, From (2023/2023), Directed by Livija Pandur,, Conductor Matija Fortuna, HNK, Varaždin, Croatia

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

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Program, About & Synopsis

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