GUBEC-BEG (ROCK OPERA)

The rock opera which combined the musical effects of rock music with musical theatric delivery became a phenomenon in the late late 1960s with bands like The Pretty Things, The Who and others had the desire to create a larger than life thematic presentation in a rock context. While the stylistic hybridization remained primarily in the English speaking world for several years after the initial explosion of popularity, other nations followed suit only after the phenomenal success of Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Jesus Christ Superstar" which reverberated around the world and in many ways alerted that the rest of the world that rock had evolved beyond its rather trite and predictable origins although The Who also played a part in upping the ante with its success in "Tommy".

The very first non-English rock opera seems to have come from the Japanese collaborative efforts of Tenjo Sajiki and the Tokyo Kid Brothers with its 1971 smash hit " サントラ盤‼ 書を捨てよ町へ出よう (Santora-ban‼ Sho o suteyo machi e deyō) " but soon the rest of the world was adapting the sound of rock music to their own interpretations of the rock opera. One of the more successful of these came from the region of Croatia which was then a part of the former Yugoslavia and titled GUBEC-BEG which was created by the primary trio of Karlo Metiko? (composer), Ivica Krajač (libretto) and Miljenko Prohaska (orchestration) along with a cast of talented vocalists and musicians to pull it all off.

The theme of this rock opera was to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Peasant Revolt of 1573 when the situation of the population was so desperate that they were forced to collaborate their efforts to defeat the ruling aristocracy of the day. The project began as far back in 1971 and premiered on March 5, 1975 in the concert hall of Vatroslav Lisinski. The play was a huge success within Yugoslavia and even spilled outside its borders despite being performed exclusively in the Croatian language. The most famous and highly regarded of the entire musical output from this rock opera has remained "Ave Maria" performed by Josipa Lisac and although the play has been revived from time to time, it has never been as successful as when it was first released. The original lineup starred Branko Blaće, Marijan Ka?aj, Josipa Lisac, Miro Ungar, Đani ?egina, Boris Pavlenić, Vlado Kovačić, Tomislav Borić, Sanda Fidersheg and others. The album featured nine tracks with a wide range of moods and motifs.

While i know next to nothing about Croatian music history, this one is not a bad example at all about the sentiments experienced in the era of the communist hegemony as it rather perfectly exemplified a new form of dictatorship in an area of the world that had been suppressed for a very long time. Given that this album is thematically relevant and performed exclusively in Croatian automatically means that most who don't speak the lingo won't comprehend the meaning of its relevance and on the musical side of the equation there is nothing here to get overly excited about either as it rather reflects the trend of ethnic folk musical flavors incorporating rock music into its fabric of existence. For those in the ex-Yugoslavia this very well may be of extraordinary importance in historical terms but for those of us who are clueless as to the experiences of the time and place, this one is decent indeed but hardly something that will speak to us on a higher level. Well worth the time to experience this Eastern European for its historical significance alone but not something that musically transcends beyond its thematic relevance.