Love and Malice, Original Opera in Two Acts

Vatroslav Lisinski (1819 – 1854) was the leading composer of early Romanticism in Croatia. Having left school in 1837, after also studying music privately with J. Sojka and J. K. Wisner von Morgenstern, he graduated in arts and law and began work as an unpaid clerk. His first compositions were enthusiastically received, and he rapidly progressed from minor works to an opera, Ljubav i zloba (‘Love and Malice’, 1845). This was the first opera in modern Croatian and South Slavonic music, and its performance was recognized as a significant event by the Revue et gazette musicale (19 April 1846) and the Wiener allgemeine Theaterzeitung (8 May 1846)... The publication of Vatroslav Lisinski’s opera Love and Malice by the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall's Music Information Center is the first printed edition of this anthological score of Croatian cultural and musical history. The publication, apart from the score, also contains the piano part prepared by composer and conductor Mladen Tarbuk, the main editor of the publication.