Ivan Zajc

Ivan Zajc [ iʋa ː n zajts ] (also Giovanni Zaytz ) ( born August 3, 1832 in Fiume (Rijeka ), Empire of Austria, today Croatia, † December 16, 1914 in Zagreb) was a composer and conductor.

Zajc in Rijeka first attended the music school, before to 1855 he studied at the Conservatory in Milan in 1850. After the death of his parents in 1855 Zajc returned back to his hometown, where he took a job as a conductor and concertmaster, at the local philharmonic Institute taught stringed instruments and wrote a number of compositions in his typical tempos. After Zajc in 1860 with his opera Amelia ossia Il Bandito was able to record a great success, he decided in 1862 to go to Vienna, where at that time there was a thriving theater and opera landscape.

He was very popular because of its operettas The boy on the boat (1863 ) and The Boasische Witch (1866 ).

He lived in the time of the Illyrian movement that influenced him and made a fervent patriot. He wanted nothing more than the union of the five Croatian counties that were under different dominations, and the liberation of Croatia from Austria - Hungary. He processed all these feelings in his operas Mislav (1870 ), Ban Lay ye (1872 ), Nikola Šubić Zrinjski (1876 ) and Lizinka ( 1878). Furthermore, numerous works for solo voice, for choir, orchestra, piano, and an oratorio are received from him. After his death he was buried in the Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb.