The 70th Dubrovnik Summer Festival will be held from 10 July to 25 August on around twenty site-specific locations in Dubrovnik. On Saturday 2 February the programme was announced by its artistic team.

One of the oldest and most prestigious European festivals, a member of the European Festivals Association since 1956, will present its numerous domestic and international audiences with over 80 theatre, music, ballet, film, folklore and other performances under the theme City Myths . The 70th edition of the festival will bring 47 days of arts and culture to Dubrovnik.

The programme brings together best Croatian artists and top performances by international artists, it disintegrates the mythology of the European cultural heritage, the myths of Dubrovnik and the myths of the Festival, at the same time questioning the past and the future of site-specific performance practices and nurturing the relationship between tradition and modernity. Its own production remains the backbone of its theatre programme, thus confirming the national, cultural and historical identity built by the Dubrovnik Summer Festival during its long existence, with the model of the Festival Drama Ensemble as its specific feature - Artistic Director Dora Ruždjak Podolski pointed out in her introduction.

The seventieth Dubrovnik Summer Festival opening ceremony, written and directed by the Artistic Director of the Festival Dora Ruždjak Podolski and Assistant Artistic Director for Theatre Saša Božić, will take place on Wednesday, 10 July 2019, in front of St Blaise's Church. The Hannover Niedersachs State Opera Orchestra, one of the finest European orchestras, and the Ivan Goran Kovačić Academic Choir, directed by maestro Ivan Repušić, and the Festival Drama Ensemble will perform during the opening.

Some highlights of the programme are:

• Hamlet, directed by Paolo Magelli by the Festival Drama Ensemble on the mythical Lovrjenac Fort from 27 to 31 July.
  
• The premiere of Geranium, directed by Marina Pejnović, based on Ivo Vojnović's short story of the same name and Antun Šoljan's short story Island from the collection Prayer in the Promenade, will take place in August.
  
• he Little Prince at the Rector's Palace Atrium, based on the most famous work of the celebrated French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which will be composed and conducted by Ivan Josip Skender, and directed by Hrvoje Korbar.
  
• Ballet lovers will be presented with The Four Seasons, ballet in two acts choreographed by Ilya Zhivoi to the score of Max Richter based on Vivaldi and performed by one of the world's best ballets, the Russian Mariinsky Theatre.
  
• A Love Supreme, a piece for four dancers based on the music of John Coltrane by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Salva Sanchis, performed by Rosas.
  
• Bass-baritone Krešimir Stražanac accompanied by pianist Danijel Detoni, will perform at the Bunić-Kaboga Summer Villa on 12 July.
  
• The Zagreb Soloists will perform at the Rector's Palace Atrium on 14 July with pianist Martina Filjak.
  
• The Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra conducted by Franz Anton Krager will also hold a concert at the Rector's Palace with distinguished soloist, trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger.
  
• The famous pianist Yuja Wang and clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer will perform together at the Rector's Palace on 6 August.
  
• Avishai Cohen Trio, a unique jazz group known for their unforgettable concerts, led by the famous bassist, vocalist and composer Avishai Cohen, will prepare a jazz treat on the Revelin Fort Terrace.
  
• The spectacular closing ceremony of the Festival will take place on 25 August with the concert of the Symphony Orchestra of the Croatian Radio and Television under the baton of Italian conductor Enrico Dindo, alongside another Italian, a virtuoso percussionist Simone Rubino.
  

The Festival collaborates with two film festivals, and the audience will enjoy exhibitions and the premiere of the documentary 70 Years of the Festival by Vedran Benić.

Download the programme brochure here. 

Tickets for nearly twenty different programmes are already available via www.ulaznice.hr ticketing service and from the Festival website www.dubrovnik-festival.hr. Ticket reservations for the programmes which are still unavailable for purchase are accepted by the Sales Office at sales@dubrovnik-festival.hr or 020 326 107.

Artistic team: Dora Ruždjak Podolski - Artistic Director, Saša Božić - Assistant Director for Theatre, Tomislav Fačini - Assistant Director for Music, Karolina Rugle - Assistant Director for Innovative Cultural Practices and Ivana Medo Bogdanović - Executive Director of the Festival.

The Dubrovnik Summer Festival, as the centre of Croatian and global spirit and culture, a place of creation,  and not just a place of visit, a place of encounters, ideas and new artistic expressions, is traditionally supported this year by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, the City of Dubrovnik, the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and numerous sponsors, to help realize this most prestigious cultural event in Croatia.