Giostra

A guest of this year’s edition of the Casanovafest is the Association of the Friends of Giostra – Associazione Amici della Giostra, which has been active at the Museum in Poreč since 2008. Giostra is the name of a once popular knights’ tournament. The first document in which Giostra from Poreč was described in detail dates back from 1745, the time when Casanova used to visit Istria and twice spent time in Vrsar. The members of the Association are both the young and the old and they interpret the rich 18^th century cultural life of their town by dancing, acting, wearing costumes and other activities. In Vrsar they are going to remind us of what kinds of clothes were worn and what dances were danced in this area in Casanova’s time.

Baroque dances

Since every dance has at least a small dose of eroticism, it is clear that Casanova used it as a method of seduction. Let yourselves be taken by the fluttering baroque rhythm in which enjoyed the famous seducer, who himself gladly visited balls and was a skillful dancer. From the members of the dance section of the Association of the Friends of Giostra you are going to find out what it was like in his era. The Giostra members are going to perform dance choreographies from the 18^th century following authentic note records. Therefore, dance with them in the streets and squares of Vrsar and master the graceful dance steps whose rhythm Casanova would use to win women’s hearts.

Fashion

With an attractive fashion performance, the Giostra members will help you conjure up what 18^th century girls and women had in their wooden chests and what they used to attract men. As it is widely known, besides dancing, one of the most important elements of successful seduction is clothes. That is why Casanova’s memoirs abound with detailed descriptions of women’s clothes and the era’s fashion. Fashion objects from the 18^th century were refined, with soft lines. Delicate and light fabrics were used to make female dresses which would usually be decorated with lace and silver threads.

Femininity was asserted by placing basket hoops on hips (paniers) above which women would put a simple petticoat and a richly decorated dress. The waist, in strong contrast with the wide hips, was tightened with richly decorated corsets, while the slightly opened cleavage was usually made in a rectangular shape. Other accessories included muffs, gloves, fans, bags and shoes.

By putting on layer by layer, from the tight corsets to the lavish dresses, the Giostra members are going to reveal which fashion items used to cover enticing female bodies from Casanova’s era.

Music Program

Duo Lirico

Lidija Horvat Dunjko – soprano

Saša Dejanović – guitar

This duo held more than 40 concerts in the past two years. They perfomed in Madrid, Buenos Aires (Teatro Colon), Santiago de Chile, Montevideo, Cuenca, Czech Budejovice, Zagreb, Varaždin and along the Croatian coast—from Orebić, Korčula (on the sailboat Sea Cloud), Makarska up to Umag, Labin, etc. Duo Lirico is a frequent guest of Croatian Television (and its programme Dobro jutro Hrvatska) and other radio and TV stations in the country and abroad.

1.      Lidija Horvat Dunjko, soprano

Lidija Horvat Dunjko graduated and later obtained a master’s degree in solo singing (Lied, oratorium and opera) from the Zagreb Music Academy, in the class of professor Zdenka Žapčić. She perfected her skills in Vienna in Olivera Miljaković’s classes as well as in Zagreb, with Dunja Vejzović. She has achieved national and international recognition and has won numerous awards, among which the most valuable is the 2000 Milka Trnina Award, the highest professional recognition. It was awarded for extraordinary artistic achievements in the year 1999.

Dunjko has had more than 30 major opera roles in Croatia and abroad. She has also sung in several operettas and musicals. She is particularly famous as a concert singer. With her recitals she has thrilled audiences in Paris (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées), Vienna (Musikverain, Konzerthaus), Toronto (Rayerson Theatre, Massey Hall), Buenos Aires (Teatro Nacional Cervantes), Madrid, Berlin, München, Bruxelles, Dublin, Salzburg, Turin, Venice, Zürich, Geneva, Zagreb, Ljubljana, etc.

She has recorded around ten CDs and, despite being extremely active as an artist, she still has time for her lecturer position at the Zagreb Music Academy.

Saša Dejanović, guitar

Saša Dejanović was born in 1965 in Banja Luka. He has been playing the classical guitar since his childhood and he started his music education in the elementary music school in his hometown. In 1974 he attended music high schools in Sarajevo and in Zagreb, in the classes of professor Istvan Römer. Later he enrolled in the Zagreb Music Academy to study guitar with professor Darko Petrinjak.

In 1986, after having won various important awards at the age of 19, he became a scholar of the Zagreb Concert Management’s Fund for Young Musicians, which was founded on the initiative of Ivo Pogorelić. He perfected his skills at the Academia Internazionale Superiore di Musica in Italy, in the class of professor Angelo Gilardino. He completed his studies in England, at the Royal College of Music in London.

Dejanović has performed in important concert halls all around the world and there is probably no continent where he did not perform. Critics named him an exceptional guitarist and a successor of Segovia and Yepes.

He is a freelance artist who lives and works in Vrsar, where he has been managing The Sea and Guitars festival for nine years.

We are going to listen to the most beautiful love songs from Casanova’s time until now:

A. Caldara:

Sebben crudele

C. W. Gluck:

O, del mio dolce ardor

F. Schubert:

DIE FORELLE, STÄNDCHEN

Fernando Sor:

INTRODUCTION & VARIATIONS ON MOZART THEME FROM “MAGIC FLUTE” Op.9

(guitar solo)

J. Hatze:

LAĐA U NOĆI, SERENADE

A. Barrios- Mangore:

UNA LIMOSNA POR AMOR DE DIOS

(guitar solo)

Manuel de Falla:

CANCIONES POPULARES ESPAÑOLAS

The Most Beautiful Love Songs from the Movies

Doctor Zhivago, Titanic, The Sound of Music,Black Orpheus

L. Delibes:

LE FILLES DE CADIX

Magic Flutes

On one of the most beautiful Istrian sites – the Vrsar belvedere – two musicians from Pula, Samanta Stell and Nataša Dragun, are going to play their flutes. Flutes, which were portrayed in various paintings throughout history as an instrument played mostly by men, were a phallic symbol and presented the male component of life. This time, in the hands of women, they will remind us of the flute as a symbol of everything that is beautiful, a symbol of goodness and music, which follows us through life, just like in Mozart’s Magic Flute. To honour the joy of life promoted by our hero Casanova, Samanta and Nataša are going to play Mozart, Bach, Locatelli and Vivaldi.

SAMANTA STELL graduated from the I.M. Ronjgov Music High School in Pula, in the class of Regina Nožica. Later she graduated in flute from the B. Marcello Conservatory of Music in Venice, in the class of professor F. Chirico as well as from the Zagreb Music Academy, in the class of professor M. Novak.

Stell perfected her skills at masterclass sessions held by professors Nicoleto, Artoud, Ghijani, Lotti, Schmaisera and Furuk.

She performs as a soloist as well as a member of a series of chamber ensemble and orchestras in Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Italy, France and the USA.

NATAŠA DRAGUN is an independent artist, and she performs as a soloist as well as in different chamber ensembles: from the duo with flutist Samanta Stell, trio NaSaSa, quartet Pro et Contra to the Evergreen Quartet. She has been playing the flute, and the tenor and baritone saxophone in the Pula Woodwind Orchestra and Pula Big Band since it was founded. From 1995 to 1998 she was a member of the INK Pula Symphony Orchestra. From 1988 to 1997 she played the flute and block flutes in the ensemble Istrian Soloists. She graduated in Croatian language and literature and cultural events management from the University in Rijeka. At the age of eight, she learnt how to play the block flute by herself and has been playing it ever since.

Sick Swing Orchestra

The Sick Swing Orchestra was founded in 1999 in Zagreb with the intention of entertaining the audience by playing swing, dixie, blues and traditional jazz standards. At the beginning they performed as a quartet in various clubs in Croatia, Austria and Italy. They expanded their repertoire but also their line-up, which is why today there are as many as eight members of the band: the vocalist, violin, saxophone, clarinet, guitar, contrabass, piano, drums. They have more than a hundred musical scores ready to be played and this is the reason why at their concerts everybody, from the age of seven to seventy-seven, is standing.

The Sick Swing Orchestra will be entertaining you with their performance on the seafront on Saturday and we are going to be able to dance and sing along to their music from 10:30 pm.