Josip Rijavec (1890 – 1959) is one of those Slovenian opera artists of the first half of the 20th century who are unfortunately somewhat forgotten today, even though at the peak of his international career he was compared to such famous tenors as Caruso and Gigli. When he performed in Buenos Aires in 1931, in the famous Teatro Colon, one of the largest opera houses in the world, he received undivided praise. Between 1907 and 1941, Rijavec performed on European and world opera stages, collaborating with the best conductors who shaped him into a top artistic personality. His exceptional voice and admirable musicality and great singing knowledge were a solid foundation for exemplary artistic interpretations of the greatest opera roles he created. The audience admired him and Pietro Mascagni, the author of the opera Rustic cavalry, chose Rijavec to record the famous aria from the aforementioned opera with him in 1933.
Rijavec's performances from Trieste, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Stockholm, Berlin to Prague, Zagreb and Belgrade have been the subject of several in-depth studies by prominent domestic and foreign musicologists, experts in Rijavec's operatic art. The present monograph, equipped with valuable photographs and documents, also bears witness to an exceptional singing career that placed this Slovenian tenor at the very top of the world's opera scene before World War II. To coincide with the publication of the present monograph, the Slovenian Theatre Museum, in collaboration with Meg Studio, also recorded a one-hour video portrait of the singer. It includes a series of testimonies from those who met Josip Rijavec on stage, such as Tomislav Neralić, or were his students at the Belgrade Academy of Music, such as Biserka Cvejić, one of the greatest Serbian opera singers of the 20th century.
In 2008, the book was also published in Serbian translation (Josip Rijavec (1890-1959): tenor of the world voice), as Rijavec spent a significant part of his career in Belgrade, where he was also one of the founders of the Belgrade Opera.
Editor: Francka Slivnik and Ivo Svetina
Text authors: Francka Slivnik, Marija Barbieri, Luisa Antoni, Marjana Mrak, Stefano Bianchi, Ksenija Braun, Daša Klemenčič, Juan Vasle, Primož Kuret, Radek Novak
Translations: Andrijan Lah, Luisa Antoni