The legend of Safikada, a young woman unhappy in love, has recently come to life on stage. Towards the end of December 2011, the opera Safikada premiered in Banja Luka after six years in the making. Artists from all around the region collaborated on it and the whole project cost hundreds of thousands of Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible marks (BAM).

The author of the text and the libretto is the Banja Luka-based journalist Slavko Pogorelec. The music was composed by Muharem Insanić, also from Banja Luka, and the opera was directed by Nenad Bojić from Belgrade. The orchestration was done by Svetozar Saša Kovačević, a music teacher from Novi Sad, and the orchestra was conducted by Ognjen Bomoštar from Sarajevo. Around 80 performers appear in the opera from different regions of the former Yugoslavia.

The role of Safikada was entrusted to Dunja Simić, a soloist with the Frankfurt Opera. Other roles were sung by Jasmin Bašić, a tenor at the National Theatre of Sarajevo, Leonard Šarić, a soloist from Sarajevo, and to Jelena Vlahović, prima donna with the Belgrade Opera.

A number of actors and performers from the Arts Academy of Banja Luka also took part in the opera together with the operatic choir and orchestra Arion and the Arts Society Veselin Masleša.

“I first came across the story of Safikada by Pogorelec during the Days of Diaspora of Banja Luka. The text was replete with wonderful melodic transitions in every verse, which reminded me of what the ancient Greeks used to say, [namely] that literature is music and music is literature,” said the composer Muharem Insanić in an interview with Southeast Europe: People and Culture.

He and Pogorelec first wrote a one-act poem under the name of Safikada and later decided to turn it into an opera.

“It is the audiences that decide whether one piece of art will survive or be forgotten. I can only hope that Safikada, together with this wonderful ensemble, will find its rightful place. I did some research and discovered there were a great number of extremely talented young people who are, in a way, being recruited from the local Arts Academy,” said Insanić after the premiere of the opera.

There are various versions of the legend of Safikada but they all feature Safikada falling in love with a foreign soldier (a Turk in one version and a soldier from the Austro-Hungarian army in another) who served at Kastel, the fortress of the city.

Soon afterwards her beloved goes to war. The unfortunate girl receives news of his death and loses the last bit of hope that the love they vowed to each other would become eternal. The legend says that Safikada put on her wedding gown, walked to the cannon in front of the fortress that was fired every night at midnight. When the fuse was lit she ran to the cannon, put her arms around it, and went to her death.

“Being entrusted with the role of Safikada was a great honour for me as it is a legend that has been told in our city for over a century. This legend is a part of the city, of my childhood, and my youth. I would be glad to see this opera live on. Whether theatres and other circumstances will be kind to it, only time will tell,” said Dunja Simić.

Director Nenad Bojić said it was not an easy task putting Safikada on stage as turning a poem into an operatic libretto is not easily done. “This is a thing of poetry. These days, phenomena such as love have, unfortunately, been lost -the world is alienated. And we wanted to use Safikada as a way of reminding people of the true meaning of the word. I hope our performance of the opera has achieved this goal,” Bajić said.

Slavko Pogorelec, the librettist, believes that the legend of Safikada is an urban and cultural representation of Banja Luka.

“This legend epitomises love as a universal good and is an ideal base for the past, present, and future interpretations of an emotional state that brings down all walls and barriers. This is because, in Safikada’s words, love is a gift God gave to people,” says Pogorelec. He adds that his libretto, written in a typically romantic manner, has been given a metaphoric and universal interpretation on stage.

Safikada will now not only be a part of legends but will live on the stage as well. The vicinity of the Kastel fortress, where Safikada is said to be buried, will continue to be a place of pilgrimage where over many generations, locals have been coming to light candles and pray for love and happiness.