LES MISÉRABLES
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Musical
Alain Boublil and
Claude-Michel Schönberg''''s
LES MISÉRABLES
Based on Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables
(1862)
Director: Nebojša Bradic
Conductor: Marko Pace/Djordje Stankovic
Set designer: Geroslav Zaric
Costume designer: Bojana Nikitovic
Lighting designer: Srdjan Jovanovic
Stage manager: Vesna Curcic-Petrovic
Original London production:
CAMERON MACKINTOSH AND THE
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY
Première: 18th October, 2007
MADLENIANUM Large Stage
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Love. Spectacle. Revolution. New life of Victor Hugo’s classic novel Les Misérables.
All this could be said for the musical Les Misérables by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, presently performed in 38 countries, which had over 39.000 reruns and was seen by an incredible number of 51.000.000 spectators. This is a play that broke all records, even the highest ones, set by the musical Cats. What does this production mean for Madlenianum? Before all, the fact that, by staging the musical Les Misérables, our house becomes a part of twenty-two year history of this play. Then, it means that Madlenianum enters the world map, because in tens of the countries of the world, at this very moment, just like in our house, an extra ticket is required for this musical.
However, playing Les Misérables principally means that our house performs the work that has rendered in verse and interpreted in the most beautiful way the most humane thoughts of Victor Hugo and transformed them into a musical spectacle that speaks of friendship, loyalty and defiance. Jean Valjean, Fantine, Eponine, Cosette, but before all, the little Gavroche, a street urchin and a prematurely aged boy, show the power of national spirit, the magnitude of the riot, tragism, but also the humane aspect of a troubled history. Now, that very history is transformed into everything that only the theatre can give: in colours, light, song, dance, but also into the real drama. Ten soloists will appear on the stage, but along with them, there will be a whole gallery of characters: convicts, prostitutes, working women, fortune-tellers, and beggars. The character of Gavroche nevertheless remains the leitmotif of the whole project of Madlenianum, which is, no doubt, for our house the central event of the season 2007/2008.
Victor Hugo
Les Misérables
BOOK-MONUMENT
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo were written in 1862, and were considered the best-known novel of 19th century. This book-monument follows lives of several characters in a twenty-year period at the beginning of 19th century, which includes a turbulent Napoleonic era and even more uncertain decades thereafter. The central figure, a sort of epoch mirror, is Jean Valjean, who simultaneously escapes and takes part in history, trying to get away and redeem himself. But, Les Misérables are not only the history of their characters. As if he was dragging the whole bunch of history and recording everything that hooked onto the story, Hugo depicted in this novel a genuine small geography of Paris, the largest European city of 19th century. He also offered a gallery of peripheral heroes, out of whom everyone and each, to the last beggar, fortune-teller or Parisian prostitute, became alive before the eyes of the reader. And when the description is completed, a writer of Victor Hugo
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type begins to fantasize and contemplate. It is not said in vain that Hugo the novel writer is never as big as when he stops „creating the novel “. At that moment, his vigorous social engagement becomes evident, and the novel starts to investigate the nature of good and evil, but also to deal with politics, ethics, law, religion, and even with the debates on sorts and nature of romantic and family love.
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The novel Les Misérables originates from the life story of a real person – an ex-convict and a famous policeman Eugène François Vidocq, whose character is divided into two main characters, but on this basis he created the work that was considered classic even during his life. Les Misérables were not only read, but were also retold, Hugo’s thoughts from the novel were repeated in every day’s life as sayings, and when the writer was exiled to the island of Jersey, many of his words and sentences got the power of combat slogans, like those in the next, 20th century. It is quite obvious that such a novel, popular even during the life of its author, will continue to live even more intensively its artistic life after his death, too. Already in 19th century, Les Misérables were translated into all important European languages, and then, in 20th century, practically into all world languages.
Victor Hugo: To die is nothing; but it is terrible not to live...
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THE MUSICAL THAT CREATES THE THEATRE HISTORY
After the British première in the Barbican Theatre in London, in 1985, and then the American première on Broadway in 1987, Les Misérables (called Le Miz by their fans) became a hit that never left the world musical stages. This musical won more than 50 most significant awards, among which was Grammy for the album with the songs from Broadway performance (triple platinum disc). The crown of the success of this musical is the award TONY for 1987. In that year, 2007, Les Misérables celebrated their 22nd birthday in London, and thus became the longest running musical in the world, breaking in that way the record of the legendary Cats. So far over fifty million spectators have seen this musical – in 223 towns, such as Tokyo, Budapest, Sidney, Reykjavik, Oslo, Toronto, Madrid... The musical was translated into 21 languages, and quite recently it celebrated its thirty-nine thousandth world performing. As of 2008, Les Misérables will, in addition to many great world languages, be performed in the Mandarin language in Shanghai as well, and it was presented for the first time to the public of Serbia and Belgrade at the stage of Madlenianum in October, 2007.
Victor Hugo: Song lingers where there is no longer any hope.
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NEBOJŠA BRADIC, director
He graduated from the Faculty of Theatrical Arts in Belgrade, in the class of Professor Borjana Prodanovic, with the performance A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. Since 1981 till 1996 he served as the director, artistic director and manager of Kruševac Theatre. He came to Belgrade in 1996, to assume the management of the theatre Atelje 212, where he remained for nine months only, but long enough to show his capabilities, thanks to which the Kruševac Theatre joined the circle of the leading Yugoslav theatres. He created the repertoire characteristic of modern European theatres, bringing into this theatre a spirit of contemporary management and started the processes that would be evident not only in this theatre, but in the whole theatrical life of Belgrade as well.
He was the manager of the National Theatre in Belgrade till 1999. Since December 2000 he has become the manager of the Belgrade Drama Theatre. He directed about 60 performances in many Serbian, but also in many Bosnian and Croatian theatres, with a special affinity for contemporary domestic literature and dramatization (The Damned Yard, Death and the Dervish, The Golden Fleece, Roots), and for the theatre in open spaces. He is the winner of several most significant domestic theatrical awards – nine awards for the best directing at the “Joakim Vujic Gathering” in Kragujevac, he was the first winner of the prize Nikola Peca Petrovic for the best theatre manager. He was also awarded the Sterija Award for the best dramatization and directing. He also deals with theatrology and writes essays. He published the book of dramatizations of the novels The Damned Yard and Death and the Dervish. Nebojša Bradic is a member of many art associations and was a member of many juries in various cultural manifestations.
Theatre reviewers and – even more important – actors, set designers and composers value him as a high expert in theatrical art, as a director who understands his associates and knows exactly what he can expect from his team and how to work with each individual in specific moments of the work on a performance. One of his main qualities is a capacity to direct his own energy and the energy of his associates in the direction that will bring results.
MARKO PACE, conductor
He was born in Milan. He completed his studies in violoncello (R. Filippini), piano (L. Taskera) and composition (G. Manzoni and A. Corgi) at the Conservatory „Giuseppe Verdi“ in Milan. Then he studied conducting, first with Franco Ferarra, and then in Vienna with Carl Estereicher. He also perfected his skills with M. Acmon, F. Nagy, G. Bertini and L. Bernstein. In 1983 he won the prize of music reviewers, Turin Soloists. He debuted in Italy as the conductor of the Orchestra Saint Cecilia in Rome; thereafter he conducted the Orchestra of Varnja, Dublin Symphonic Orchestra, Radio Bucharest Orchestra, Debrecin Symphonic Orchestra (Hungary), Chamber Orchestra in Prague, Opera Orchestra of Olomouc, the Orchestra of the State Opera in Prague, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Arpegione Orchestra (Austria), the Orchestra of Sofia Opera (Bulgaria), the Orchestra of Radio Belgrade and the Orchestra of Novi Sad Opera (Serbia). In the season 1999/2000 he was a full-time conductor of the State Opera in Prague. In the recent seasons he had several tours in South Korea and South America, and performed numerous symphonic concerts all over Europe, especially in Denmark and Germany. He has recently become a member of the association „Piosenkarze“ and has been engaged in formation of a new orchestra that officially debuted in September 2007. 
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GEROSLAV ZARIC, set designer
He was born at Milutovac on 9th May, 1951. He graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade in 1976. He has been a member of ULUPUDUS (Association of the Artists of Applied Arts of Serbia) since 1976, and there since he has been in the status of a freelance artist. He was granted a distinguished artist status in 1996. He is a full-time professor of the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. He is active in painting and set design. He is one of the founders of the groups Act and New Sensitivity. He is the author of over two hundred set designs for theatrical productions. He collaborated with the most distinguished Serbian theatre directors, as well as with many others from the ex-Yugoslav region. He also realized set design productions on numerous festivals: BELEF, Budva City Theatre and Ohrid Summer Festival.
Geroslav Zaric created many set designs for television, in dramatic and series shows. As designer and graphic artist, he took part in numerous exhibitions in the country and abroad, on May Salon, October Salon, Prague Quadrennial... He was awarded some fifty awards, among which seven Sterija Awards. Some of the important performances for which Geroslav Zaric created set designs were: Saint George Kills the Dragon, Kir Janja, Liar and Superliar, Muster Station, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rabies, A Stuck-Up Woman, Yegor’s Path ... Geroslav Zaric already worked for Madlenianum, in the performance Tesla.
BOJANA NIKITOVIC, costume designer
She was born in Belgrade on 25th May, 1965. She graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in 1989. She made more than hundred theatrical costumes. Her most significant performances are: Crime and Punishment, King Ibi, Kir Janja, The Twelfth Night, False Emperor Scepan Mali, Filumena Marturano, Koštana, Troilus and Cresida, Kiss of The Spider Woman, Idiot, An Enemy of the People, Imaginary Patient and many others. As the designer of costumes in the theatre, she was granted three Sterija Awards (in 1993, in 1994 and in 2002). Bojana Nikitovic made the costumes for the operas: Rigoletto and the Power of Destiny, and for the ballets Mayerling and Romeo and Juliet. As the film costume designer, she was engaged in more than ten projects, mostly for Italian producers, and as the first assistant of the costume designer Milena Canonero, she was the co-winner of Oscar for the Best Costume Design in Sofia Coppola’s film about Marie Antoinette. Bojana Nikitovic was pronounced the best costume designer by the Magazin Stage in the years 1997, 1998 and 1999. She was also granted the prize of YUSTAT for the year 1997, and the three awards of the Yugoslav Association of Applied Arts Artists and Designers
Victor Hugo: A clock does not stop short at the precise moment when the key is lost.
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ZAFIR HADŽIMANOV as Jean Valjean
Zafir Hadžimanov was born at Kavadarci (Macedonia) on 25th December 1943, from father Vasil and mother Vera. In 1967 he enrolled the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade and graduated as an excellent student in the class of Professor Mata Miloševic in 1967. Even as a student, he achieved extraordinary success in theatre, in the world of film and show business. He won prizes at all festivals of the time: Belgrade, Zagreb, Opatija, Split, Skopje, but also at the international festivals in Sopot (Poland) and Varadero (Cuba). He played the main roles in the films The Knife by Ž. Mitrovic and Macedonian Bloody Wedding by T. Popov, as well as in several other films and at the theatre stages in Belgrade (Theatre on Terazije, Atelje 212), Skopje (Drama Theater), Novi Sad (Serbian National Theatre) and Boston (Forum Theatre).
He was more popular among broad audience as the singer-songwriter dominant in the world of chansons, of his own creation, as well as the works of many other leading poets. Unlike anybody else in Serbia and Macedonia, he composed tens of chansons and ballads to the verses of anthological poets, such as: Konstantin Miladinov, Kosta Racin, Blaže Koneski, Aca Šopov and Radovan Pavlovski, as well as of such celebrities as Miloš Crnjanski, Duško Radovic, Desanka Maksimovic, Brana Crncevic... He received all kinds of awards, starting from Struga Poetry Evenings in 1975, all the way to the International Chansons Festival in Zagreb in 2002 and in 2003. Alone, or together with his wife, Senka Veletanlic-Hadžimanov, he recorded many records, discs, TV shows. He performed at the stages such as Olympia (Paris), Opera House (Sydney), Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow)...
He was awarded the annual actors’ prize of the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad, the special award for high accomplishments in the domain of acting by the Association of Dramatic Artists of Serbia, the Yugoslav Show Business Award The Distinguished Artist of Serbia, Lifetime Achievement Award by Skopje Radio Ladybug (in 2002), Lifework Award granted by the voting of the spectators of TV Jesenjin (in 2003), and the Golden Masque Award for spreading of Macedonian culture all over the world (in 2006).
Zafir Hadžimanov writes poetry in two languages: Serbian and Macedonian: Chansons in Paper, Dog Singer (Recognition Award Stražilovo), Asylum, National Poet, Brother, but he also wrote a book of short stories Sour-Merry. In 2007 he published a CD named There Was May, with his greatest festival successes.
Victor Hugo: „He does not weep who does not see.“
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KATARINA GOJKOVIC
She was born in Chicago on 21st December, 1967. She graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. She received the scholarship from the Yugoslav Drama Theatre in the period 1987- 1990. Since 1997 she has the status of a freelance artist. She accomplished the roles in the following performances: The Dybbuk (directing: Eduard Miller), Proletarian Farce (directing: Egon Savin), Theatrical Illusions (directing: Slobodan Unkovski), Merry Wives of Windsor (directing: Branko Pleša), Florentine Hat (directing: Ljubomir Draškic), Nijinsky (directing: Irfan Mensur), Merchants (“Tergovci”) (directing: Vida Ognjenovic), Misanthrope (directing Dejan Mijac), Belgrade Trilogy (directing: Goran Markovic), Dear Daddy (directing: Boris Liješevic), Chicago (directing: Kokan Mladenovic). She realized the roles in the films: The Battle of Kosovo, Tell Me Why You Left Me and The White Suit.
DEJAN LUTKIC
He completed the elementary school of music, piano department. He graduated in acting from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. He played in the following performances: the musicals Grease and Oliver Twist, the dramas Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Mandragola, The Three Musketeers, The Maids, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bekstvo (“Escape”). He also took part in the films: White Ship, Interethnic Marriage (M(j)ešoviti brak), Do Not Trust A Woman Who Smokes Gitanes Without Filter (in 1995), Red, Yellow, Green... Start (1998), Sex Bomb (2001), Peregrination (1999), Sky Hook (1999), Family Treasure 2 (2001), Labyrinth (2002), Fazoni i Fore 2, Ringeraja (2002), YU (2003), Mansard (2003) and Ferry (2004).
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NATAŠA MARKOVIC
She graduated acting in the class of Professor Branislav Micunovic at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade in 1998, by the performance The Murderer, directed by Anja Suša at the Belgrade Drama Theatre. She is one of the founders of the theatrical group Torpedo. Among other things, she plays in the performances Shopping and Fucking, directed by Iva Miloševic, at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Some Girls, directed by Gorcin Stojanovic, at the Belgrade Drama Theatre, Claus and Erica, directed by Nebojša Bradic, and Runner, directed by Stevan Bodroža at the Small Theatre Duško Radovic. She had parts in the films Ringeraja and Seven and A Half, and also played in the television series Foxes and Elevator.
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KATARINA ŽUTIC
She was born on 24th October, 1972. She completed the elementary school of music, departments piano and bass-guitar and graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, in the class of Professor P. Bajcetic in 1998. She had roles in five domestic feature-length films: Black Bombardier, Byzantine Blue (she received the Empress Theodora Award for the main female role, in Niš), Dorcol-Manhattan, Sky Hook (Award for the best supporting role, in Niš), Robbery of the Third Reich, and in the film Katrina, by the Canadian director Louis Frank. She played some thirty five roles in theatre, and, among them, the most significant performances are: Troilus and Cressida, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew (Award for the best female role) and Run for Your Wife (award for the best young actress at the Comedy Festival). She performed in Italian at the Festival La MaMa Umbria. She composed music and played a role of the Problematic One in the Orange Peel, by Maja Pelevic.
IVAN BOSILJCIC
He was born on 15th January, 1979. He graduated in the class of Professor Vida Ognjenovic from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad in 2001. He had important and main roles in the theatrical performances: The Twelfth Night (Award for the best young actor at the Joakim Vujic Gathering), Hamlet, Mileva Einstein and The Speed of Darkness. Ivan Bosiljcic also played in the following musicals: Brilliantine, Kiss Me Kate, The Gypsy Camp Disappears in the Skies, A Chorus Line and Chicago. He also played in the films: Spleen, Fear of Flying, Monet and On the Beautiful Blue Danube.
LJUBOMIR POPOVIC
He was born in Belgrade. He graduated from the Faculty of Music Art, in the class of Biserka Cvejic. In the year 2002 he became a member of the Operatic Studio of the National Theatre in Belgrade, and since November 2006 he has been a full-time member of the Opera of the National Theatre. At the stage of the National Theatre he realized a number of roles in the operas by Strauss, Puccini, Mozart, Rossini and Tchaikovsky. Ljubomir Popovic performed at the stage of Madlenianum in the opera The Tales of Hoffmann.
VLADIMIR ANDRIC
He was born in Valjevo in 1972. For the role of Dandini in the opera Cinderella he was awarded by the National Theatre in 1999 and was also granted the award Davidoff for promising creativity and talent. He was the winner of the International Contest Jeunesses Musicales in Belgrade in 1998. He won the third prize at the competition within the International Festival George Enescu in Bucharest in 2001. At the stage of the Opera of the National Theatre in Belgrade he realized a great number of important roles in the following operas: Don Giovanni, Madam Butterfly, The Barber of Seville, Faust, Eugene Onegin, The Elixir of Love, and The Magic Flute. At Madlenianum Opera and Theatre he performed in the operas: Il Signor Bruschino, The Wise Girl, La Traviata and Madam Butterfly.
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SRDJAN TIMAROV
He was born in Belgrade on 7th August, 1976. He graduated in acting from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. He had his acting debut at the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad. He has been a member of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre in Belgrade since April, 2001. He plays in the performances of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, The Serbian National Theatre, the theatre Atelje 212 and Belgrade Drama Theatre. His most significant roles in the theatre are: Measure for Measure, Spawn of Carps, Faith and Treason, Bereaved Family (all at the Serbian National Theatre), Supermarket, The Merchant of Venice, and Pavilions (in the Yugoslav Drama Theatre). He received the following prizes: Jovan Sterija Popovic, in 2001, for the role in the performance Pavilions, Ardalion in Užice, in 1999 and in 2006, as well as the Award Predrag Tomanovic of the Serbian National Theatre for the role in the performance Measure for Measure.
TANJA OBRENOVIC
She completed her secondary musical education in Belgrade at the school Stevan Mokranjac, the department for theory and the department for solo singing in the class of Mirjana Vlaovic. She graduated from the Faculty of Music Art in Belgrade at the Department for General Musical Pedagogy. After her studies at the Faculty of Music Art in Belgrade and the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, she studied solo singing in the class of the principal male singer of Bucharest Opera, Oktav Enigaresku. She received her M.A. degree in the class of the Professor Vera Kovac Vitkai. Even during her studies, the experts noticed her dark coloured voice, equalized in all registers, as well as her capacity to shape phrases. Tanja Obrenovic is a soloist of the Opera of Madlenianum, where she realized roles in the operas The Secret Marriage, by D. Cimarosa, The Wise Girl, by K. Orff, Two Widows, by B. Smetana, Cosi fan tutte, by W. A. Mozart and the Tales of Hoffmann, by J. Offenbach, La Traviata, by G. Verdi and Madam Butterfly, by G. Puccini.
DARKO DJORDJEVIC
He was born in Belgrade on 10th October, 1969. Since 1996 he has been a member of the opera ensemble of the National Theatre. Among other performances, he performed in the roles of Pepe
(Pagliacci), Tesla (Violet Fire), Dr. Blind (Die Fledermaus), Judas I, II, III, IV (Salome), Ruiz (Il Trovatore). Darko Djordjevic also performed the roles of Andreas, Cochenille, Pitichinaccio and Franz in Madlenianum production of The Tales of Hoffmann, and the role of Goro in Madlenianum’s Madam Butterfly.
PREDRAG MILANOVIC
He was born in Kraljevo on 21st August, 1979. He completed his elementary and secondary musical education (Department for General Musical Pedagogy and Department for Solo Singing) at the Faculty of Philology and Arts in Kragujevac, in the class of Assistant Professor Milan Nešic. He completed his basic and post-graduate studies at the Department for Solo Singing, in the class of Professor Radmila Smiljanic, at the Faculty of Music Art in Belgrade. He performed in the operas of Verdi, Puccini, Bizet, Donizetti, as the interpreter of the leading baritone roles. He also performed as the soloist with the Choir Collegium Musicum and the Choir of Radio Television of Serbia.
...“ one is running short of words of superhuman commendation for the brilliant musical-scenic accomplishment in Madlenianum, entitled " Les Misérables ", which spurs on this year’s BEMUS to the heavenly elevations, throwing galaxies of its glittering stars all over such a memorable all-night road!...
Zorica Kojic
Danas, 22nd October, 2007