CATHERIN OF ZRIN

"I am not interested in Catherine from a historical point of view, the conspiracy of Zrinski and Frankopan is just a frame. I was interested in the woman, the heroine - in fifty percent of cases, the main hero of the opera is a woman - who was ahead of her time and ended tragically because she wanted to realize her dreams which were not possible at the time. It is a classic conflict between dreams and wishes on one side and the possibility of realization on the other. We have these conflicts every day. The libretto is slightly shifted, it also tells of the love of Peter and Catherine, of her brother Frankopan who was a playboy at the time (I read some of his frivolous verses). His personality seems to be in contrast to them. he did not understand politics, but his almost incestuous spiritual love for his sister led him to become a radical, organised the uprising which contributed to the collapse of the idea (national movement of Croatian and Hungarian noblemen against the absolutism of the Habsburg)." (I.K. 2004)