CROATIAN MUSIC, Krunoslav Cigoj

Krunoslav Cigoj (Zagreb, 30 March 1949 – Zagreb, 27 August 2015) was a Croatian opera singer (tenor), opera and operetta director and diplomat. His musical talent was discovered in his high school age by prof. Vladimir Kranjčević, who prepared him for the role of Ernesto in Donizzeti's Don Pasquale in the Split opera. He started his singing studies with prof. Miroslav Lunzer in Zagreb, at whose urging he went to Vienna to audition for the Conservatory, where he obtained a scholarship and a job with Volksoper. He signed a contract with the German record label "Metronome", which in 1969 published the LP The Youngest Tenor in the World, and became a star in Germany and Austria. He achieved his breakthrough in Croatia at the Kajkavian song festival "Krapina" in 1968 and 1970, and his first significant opera role was in 1971 as Alfredo in Verdi's Traviata. His voice and talent took him around the world and he sang in Hamburg, Carnegie Hall in New York, Connecticut Grand Opera in Bridgeport, São Carlos Theatre in Lisbon, East Berlin, Athens, Trieste, Split, Sarajevo, but mostly in Zagreb, where he played a number of memorable characters: Alfredo, Cavaradossi, Rodolfo, Don Jose, Pollione, Macduff, Hoffmann, Juranić, etc. He won the "Vladimir Nazor" award for the role of Pollione in the opera Norma, and the Milka Trnina and "City of Zagreb Award" for Don Jose in the opera Carmen. After his artistic career, he entered the diplomatic service as a cultural attaché of the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and he also showcased his knowledge and experience of the theater as a director. An illness that he was diagnosed with very early, and with which he struggled for more than three decades, slowed his career, but not his performances, as well as many humanitarian actions. David Danijel, pop music chronicler, collector and musician, author of Alfi Kabiljo biography Viva la musica! Long Live the Music!, Croatian Composers Society and Cantus, 2025