About the work
Comic opera in three acts by Jakov Gotovac to a libretto by Milan Begović, premiered on 2 November 1935 at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb under the composer's own baton. Based on a Dalmatian folk tale, it is regarded as Croatia's most successful opera and has since been staged at more than eighty European theatres in around ten languages.
Plot
The wealthy Mića from the Dalmatian hinterland disguises himself as a penniless vagrant, "Ero from the other world", to test the love of the farmer's daughter Đula. Through invented tales and tricks he wins her heart, until his true identity is exposed at a fair; the opera closes with reconciliation, a wedding and a dance finale.
Cultural significance
Dismissed with scorn by Zagreb critics at first, the work went on to become the most frequently performed stage work in Croatian musical theatre history and has remained in the Croatian National Theatre's repertoire almost without interruption since its premiere.