Jakov Gotovac

Jakov Gotovac (; October 11, 1895 – October 16, 1982) was a Croatian composer and conductor of classical music. His comedic opera, Ero s onoga svijeta (Ero the Joker), Croatia’s best-known opera, was first performed in Zagreb in 1935. Biography Gotovac was born in Split (then part of Austria-Hungary) and initially had little if any formal education in music. He was fortunate to be encouraged and supported by Josip Hatze, Cyril Metoděj Hrazdira and Antun Dobronić who instilled him with a nationalistic orientation in music. He started as a law student in Zagreb, but switched to writing music in 1920. In Vienna, he studied in the class of Joseph Marx. Back home, in 1922 he worked with Masaryk’s Philharmonia Society Kolo founded in Šibenik by Vice Iljadica in 1899. In 1923 he moved to Zagreb, where he kept working both as conductor and composer until his death. Between 1923 and 1958, he was the opera conductor at the Croatian National Theatre (Hrvatsko narodno kazalište), and leader of an academic musical society Mladost, and of the choir Vladimir Nazor. His best-known work is Ero s onoga svijeta (a libretto written by Milan Begović) which has been performed on all continents except Austr