Dubrovnik Summer Festival

Don't miss top-quality events in Dubrovnik: Exhibition, theatre, music, folklore, dance, kids show and more with Dubrovnik Summer Festival.

What to expect

Exhibition, theatre, music, folklore, film, ballet, dance, kids show and more.

Dubrovnik Summer Festival
Dubrovnik Summer Festival

Dubrovnik Summer Festival

The Dubrovnik Summer Festival is recognized as the major producer of top-quality events in Dubrovnik, as Croatia’s leading cultural institution, and as one of Europe’s five most distinguished cultural festivals.


The Festival will traditionally take place from 10 July to 25 August this year. During the 47 days of the Festival’s 75th edition, the audiences will have the opportunity to enjoy a carefully selected programme comprising the Festival’s own productions and top guest performances featuring some of the best Croatian and international artists. More than 70 theatre, music, folklore and other events, with participation of around 1,000 artists, will be held on over 20 site-specific locations in Dubrovnik. 

The program

This year’s exceptionally rich and varied theatre program includes three big premieres, and performances of successful productions from previous seasons. The first premiere is a coproduction of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival and the Marin Držić Theatre, Carlo Goldoni's iconic La bottega del caffè, directed by Paolo Tišljarić and staged on Držić Square. La bottega del caffè is a title especially held dear by Dubrovnik citizens who to this day remember and quote it fondly, and witnessed by the fact that the original staging was on the repertoire for a decade and subsequent ones lasted multiple seasons as well.

The Dubrovnik Summer Festival’s long history is marked by one of the best modern Croatian writers, Ivo Vojnović, and his plays. This summer his Equinox, directed by Krešimir Dolenčić and performed at a new location on Posat, will be the second theatre premiere. The third premiere will be William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a vision of the new age directed by Slovenian director Vito Taufer and performed on the magical Island of Lokrum. Last year’s hit play, Marijana Fumić's The Melancholy Women of Ragusa, weaves a story about the everyday life in old Dubrovnik focusing on the lives and fates of nine exceptional women. Directed by Dora Ruždjak Podolski it will be performed in Gradac Park.


The music program also brings events you mustn't miss, starting from the legendary Grammy winner Jordi Savall, who will open the music program with his ensemble Hespèrion XXI in a concert at the Rector’s Palace Atrium. The big anniversary of the Festival will be celebrated with a glamourous opera gala concert. Select arias will be performed by one of the greatest opera singers of today, soprano Sonya Yoncheva, Maltese golden tenor Joseph Calleja and one of the most sought-after basses on the international scene, Ante Jerkunica, accompanied by the Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ivan Repušić.  The staple of the Festival’s music programme, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra will give three concerts and feature two amazing soloists, first the esteemed Croatian cellist Monika Leskovar under the baton of Sebastian Lang-Lessing, and then Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, world-renowned guitarist considered a successor of the legendary Andrés Segovia, conducted by Valentin Egel. The traditional featuring of Croatia’s foremost musicians will this summer see one of the world’s best countertenors performing at the Rector's Palace – Max Emanuel Cenčić, whose extensive biography includes numerous recordings and several Grammy nominations; as well as the Antiphonus Ensemble with the lauded guitarist Petrit Çeku; the Zagreb Quartet, Croatia’s oldest string ensemble alongside one of the most successful Croatian pianists of the younger generation, Ivan Krpan, and many more, including Croatia’s best young musicians gathering for the benefit concert Youth for Youth. 


Coming from premier international concert halls to the Festival stage are renowned pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard; the Bach Consort Wien ensemble; violin virtuoso and ICMA Artist od the Year Renaud Capuçon and other top performers. Following the example of major international classical music festivals, the Dubrovnik Summer Festival has started the World Music and Jazz Concert Series with the aim of audience development and offering unique cultural-artistic experiences. The series will include the performance of the JM Jazz World Orchestra and Luis Bonilla, legend of the Dubrovnik chanson Ibrica Jusić, the ethnomusicological project entitled Bërbili (Nightingale) – Forgotten Songs of the Zadar Arbanasi, as well as the flamenco show programme Tarab, performed by the Cristina Aguilera Flamenco Trio. 

Ballet lovers will have the opportunity to enjoy the Croatian National Theatre Zagreb Ballet’s performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Gradac Park, directed and choreographed by Leo Mujić while Croatia’s rich folk dance and music heritage will be presented in a series of four performances by the Linđo Folklore Ensemble and the LADO National Folk Dance Ensemble of Croatia.

The 75th Dubrovnik Summer Festival’s arts programme includes these exciting exhibitions: Lopud Portraits, featuring the works of photographer Mara Bratoš; The Mediterranean in the 20th and 21st Century Croatian Painting, a collaboration between the Festival and the Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik; painter Toni Franović’s Dubrovnik From a Stranger’s Eye and Paintbrush, and From Car to Chaos, featuring the works of the distinguished painter and sculptor Josip Ivanović.

The Vision

Relying on the City’s and its own rich and living heritage, the Festival promotes its site-specific program policy, combining tradition and modernity, and connecting local, national, and international creativity. This is a place where people gather together to exchange ideas and create new projects.

Drawing on the abundant and vibrant heritage of Dubrovnik and its own rich history, the Festival embodies a unique artistic postulate – a site-specific program policy. The Dubrovnik Summer Festival doesn’t use walls of the palaces and beautiful gardens of tis open air venues only as sets. In Dubrovnik, that space is decisive in creating a unique and unforgettable event. That is the reason why, during more than seven decades of existence, the Festival has catalogued as many as 130 various venues. That means almost the entire city and even the sea surrounding it are encompassed in the program, Dubrovnik citizens living not just parallel to but together with the Festival itself, which resulted in a unique bond between the City and the Festival. During the 47 days of the Festival,  new art forms and aesthetics that are reflected in fusion of and modernity tradition are highlighted, as well as blending local, national and international creativity, in turn making the Festival a true place of meeting, not just a cultural venue for its own sake.

 

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