Exhibition concept: Marina Perica Krapljanov
Exhibition design: Nikolina Jelavić Mitrović
Visual identity: TriTon dizajn studio, Viola Šebalj
Animation and video installations: Natko Stipaničev
Mrs Marina Würth Klepač, daughter of Ruža Cvjetičanin and Rudolf Klepač, and artistic and married couple, donated to the Zagreb City Museum items from the family heritage of her parents which became a part of the Museum archives. These donated items, which relate to the famous virtuoso Mr Rudolf Klepač, were presented to the public in the 2013 exhibition of the Zagreb City Museum Rudolf Klepač – the Bassoon Master.
Items, photographs and documents, whose topics are related to the artistic work of Ruža Cvjetičanin, have been digitalised and entered in the inventory of the Theatre Collection.
The donated collection (together with items borrowed from private collections) presented in the exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of her birth showed the childhood of Ruža Cvjetičanin, her youthful enthusiasm, her obsession with theatre and operetta and her career from the first brave performance at the audition and her debut to her professional challenges and honours.
For 20 years Ruža was a member of the national theatre and played over eighty operetta roles. In 1950s she continued her career in another institution: City Theatre Komedija (Comedy). She celebrated her grand jubilee, 30 years of her artistic work, in both theatres which was a great honour and a privilege.
The monographic nature of this exhibition showcases the phenomenon of the extreme popularity which Ruža Cvjetičanin enjoyed in the 1930s and 1940s. As the leading light of the then beloved form of popular culture, she was the darling of her doting audience wherever she performed and treated like a star wherever she appeared.
One part of the exhibition is devoted to the marriage and family relations of Ruža Cvjetičanin and Rudolf Klepač, the beloved artistic couple. The background sound of the exhibition area are interpretations of her favourite operettas (Grofica Marica / Countess Maria, Zemlja smiješka / The Land of Smiles etc.) to remind the visitors of her beautiful clear soprano and the golden age of Zagreb operetta.
With this exhibition Zagreb City Museum would like to thank the Cvjetičanin family on this valuable donation which has enriched the Museum holdings and will preserve the memory of the great operetta artist and darling of the audience.
Marina Perica Krapljanov
Pictures from the exhibition
photo Miljenko Gregl, ZCM
Exhibition catalogue
Perica Krapljanov, Marina; Davor Schopf. Ruža Cvjetičanin – operetni dragulj : prigodom stogodišnjice rođenja = Ruža Cvjetičanin – operetta gem : marking her 100th birth anniversary.
Zagreb : Muzej grada Zagreba, 2016
