The Croatian National Theatre (HNK) Split on Wednesday presented the programme for the 71st Split Summer Festival, taking place from 14 July to 14 August and featuring more than 60 opera, drama, ballet, and concert performances, as well as film screenings, exhibitions, and other events at different venues.

HNK Split director Vicko Bilandzic said that this year’s edition is dedicated to the phenomenon of leaders and leadership. In this context, two major premieres have been announced -Ivo Tijardovic’s opera “Diocletian” and Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”.

Although the festival deals with serious topics this year, it will conclude on a lighter note. The festival brings together as many as five orchestras: the HNK Split Orchestra, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, which celebrates its 100th anniversary, the Croatian Navy Orchestra, marking the 30th anniversary of the military and police Operation Storm, the Macedonian Jazz Orchestra, and the HRT Orchestra, which will perform music from Tijardovic’s opera.

The festival, held in Split since 1954, will once again transform the city’s historic spaces into stages blending art and ambience in a unique way.