Zora D - An Opera in One Act

Libretto by Isidora Žebeljan, based on an original idea by Dusan Ristic. German translation by Wolfgang Willaschek.

Short Summary by David Pountney

The work is a highly atmospheric examination of the emotional legacy of a tragedy which took place 60 years before.

A brilliant young poet, Zora Dulian, suddenly disappeared without explanation, leaving behind her one single poem - a haunting description of the place where she was last known to be alive. Now a young woman, Mina, whose identification with the poet seems quite exceptional, has found the poem and set out on a journey to discover the truth. Or perhaps it is the poem itself which has found her, and through her seeks to lay the past to rest.

The work criss-crosses between contemporary times and the Belgrade of the thirties - an era of feverish artistic fertility - as the complex interaction of Mina and Old Vida in contemporary times, and Vida Zora and Jovan in the past are brought together to a moment of epiphany.(1)

Prologue

Zora's voice is heard declaming her artistic credo: "Sing dein Lied auch wenn es niemand hort..."

Scene I

At the river bank

The woman with the Silver Scarf waits at the river, repeating the words of the poem she has written about the location of her amorous rendezvous.

Scene II

A library.

The Stranger is waiting. Mina bursts in, oppressed by the crowds in the street outside. She has an obsessive dream in which the words of a poem ("Warum fluestern leise Pappeln...?") insistently reoccur. She is searching for the origins and meaning of the poem. The Stranger places a book in her hand and disappears. It contains the poem in a volume edited by Professor Kostic.

Scene III

Professor Kostic's study.

Prof. Kostic tells Mina that the poet was called Zora Dulian, and fills in some details of her biography. She was a brilliant poet and a member of the vibrant artistic life of Belgrade in the 30s. Zora's peculiarity was that she burnt every poem that she wrote.

Prof. Kostic and Mina revel in a moment of mutual nostalgia for this vanished era.

Kostic is increasingly struck by Mina's resemblance to Zora but when she asks what became of Zora, he gruffly replies that no one knows.

Scene IV

Old Vida's apartment.

Vida has returned to her old Belgrade apartment after a self-imposed exile of 60 years, but she finds it to be still haunted by the past.

She tries to drown out these memories by switching on the radio, but that too only seems to play words and music from the past. She resolves to leave, but in hurriedly packing her belongings she discovers the silver scarf.

It draws her into a reverie of the past:

Zora and the young vida excitedly await the return of Vida's fiancee, Jovan. Zora has written a poem to celebrate their approaching wedding, but burns it like all the others. When the three, Jovan, Vida and Zora, come together, the old Vida summons the strength to break this disturbing recollection. She resolves to dispose of the scarf.

Scene V

An Antique Shop

Mina finds herself drawn into an Antique Shop. The Antique Seller appears and introduces his beguiling wares. Finally he asks Mina what she is looking for, but she hesitates. He offers her the silver scarf but refuses payment: "War deiner; bleibt auch deiner." As Mina puts the scarf around her neck, the two of them relive for a moment Zora and Jovan's meeting at a ball and the all too brief flowering of their love.

Scene VI

Old Vida's Flat.

Vida is increasingly distressed by haunting memories of her betrayal by Zora and Jovan and its tragic consequences. Mina appears in her flat having followed the trail of the Silver Scarf. Vida is horrified by her resemblance to Zora, and Mina's insistence that she explain the circumstances of Zora's disappearance. Gradually, Vida is forced to recount the events of 60 years before: Vida had discovered that Zora and Jovan had made a rendezvous by the river. She intercepted their correspondence and changed the time. Instead of Jovan, it was Vida who confronted Zora by the river, asking her why she above all people had betrayed her. Zora vanished into the river, leaving Vida holding the silver scarf. Vida found the poem about the poplars: it was to be Zora's only surviving work. In the aftermath of Zora's unexplained disappearance, Jovan committed suicide. Vida spent the rest of her life fleeing from the memory of this tragedy. Now Vida can finally hand over the last letter which Jovan wrote.

Scene VII

Empty stage

The interweaving fates of the living and the dead continue to flow, like the disturbed currents of the river which took Zora's life and destroyed their peace.

Footnote: (1) the passages in the short summary and the libretto that are printed in italics refer to the past!!