Premiere: 3 October 2026
Main Stage
Svetislav Božić
The Risen Shadows
A word from the composer
The Risen Shadows are part of a shifting world of sound and spirit that remains a constant on the personal and collective map of the Serbian people's journey, driving and renewing creativity in all its boundless diversity.
Academician Svetislav Božić
A word from the choreographer
In The Risen Shadows, we preserve the memory of one of the most difficult chapters in our history: the suffering of the Serbian people during the Great War, but also the strength, dignity and faith of people who, despite everything, continue to live and create. At the centre of this vast historical canvas stands Nadežda Petrović, an artist whose life was inseparable from her people. The production portrays the sacrifice of artists and the people, bearing witness to their rebirth through collective memory and art.
Jovica Begojev
Libretto
Act One
A feverish atmosphere of chaos reigns in the hospital in Valjevo. Death visits the deranged Doctor, teetering on the edge of sanity, and his wounded patients. She revives their bodies, returning them to the space between this world and the next. Death awakens Nadežda Petrović and brings her together with her youngest brother, Rastko, only to separate them again. Rastko is left alone in a fruitless search for his sister.
Years before her death in the hospital in Valjevo, the young artist Nadežda studies at an art academy and develops her talent with the support of a mentor. When she is alone before her easel, she encounters the Angel, her source of inspiration. The Angel helps Nadežda and her sisters bridge the divide created by the sisters' envy of a life spent in the shadow of Nadežda's art and success.
Love grows between Nadežda and Branko Popović, a fellow painter and close friend, but news of war cuts it short. Nadežda and Branko share a brief moment of intimacy already overshadowed by their coming separation, before Branko disappears into a sea of soldiers bound for the front.
Act Two
The war has already claimed its first victims. On the battlefield, among the bodies of the fallen, Death and the Angel meet as inseparable companions in suffering. As Nadežda works, Branko appears to her like a dream or a memory, but the war thwarts every attempt they make to reunite.
Nadežda's engagement to a respected officer places her in a world of wealth, social standing and rigid conventions, where her freedom and independence are unwelcome. Her art, self-reliance and refusal to fit the role assigned to her make her an outsider in a society that measures a person's worth by family background, reputation and obedience. The officer's arrogant mother tries to separate them, and he, unable to stand up to her, betrays Nadežda and fails to defend her. Behind the appearance of honour and morality, Nadežda recognises the hypocrisy of a world that rejects both her and her art. She breaks off the engagement and chooses her own path, going to the battlefield as a nurse.
Against the scenes of suffering, the world tries to preserve an illusion of ordinary life. A ball continues in a magnificent hall, its music drowning out what is happening beyond the walls. Death enters among the guests, her presence signalling that the war will no longer remain somewhere far away: the same young people now filling the ballroom will soon leave for the front.
The women remain on the battlefield: mothers, sisters, wives and nurses who followed their loved ones. They fight their own battle on blood-soaked ground, trying to help the survivors, while Death and the Angel continue their eternal dance in the sky. After the battle, the women stay with the wounded and the dead, keeping them from vanishing into the multitude of the fallen. Through their care, memory and love, the dead regain a presence, and risen shadows rise from their bodies. In this realm of memory, Nadežda and Rastko meet again, brought by Death and the Angel beyond the boundaries of life and death. Among the peonies, brother and sister find each other once more — this time without parting.
Choreographer Jovica Begojev
Costume designer Marija Marković Milojev
Set designer Miraš Vuksanović
Dramaturg Nina Plavanjac
Conductor Đorđe Pavlović
Premiere cast:
Nadežda Petrović Margarita Cheromukhina
Death Olga Olćan
Angel Ljiljana Velimirov
Rastko Petrović Miloš Živanović
Branko Popović Toma Križnar
Officer Aleksandr Polupanov
Sisters Mina Bajec, Jana Zimonjić, Anastasija Vujnović, Natalija Tapić, Mina Predojević, Danijela Simić
Doctor Vladimir Panajotović
Mentor Željko Grozdanović
Madam Nada Stamatović
Voice of Memory Sanja Kerkez
Women's ensemble Dunja Anđelković, Angelina Krstanović, Anastasija Nikčević, Gala Pamučar, Sara Pamučar, Kristina Kovačević, Ana Radošević, Irina Dojnov, Sunčica Milanović, Sofija Blažić, Jana Đorđević, Tijana Drndarević, Marina Pamučar, Jelena Momirov, Natalija Bata, Kristina Nikolovski, Nataša Najman, Sanja Tomić
Men's ensemble Dmitrii Arbuzov, Jerome Bates, Ian González, Riccardo Garcovich, Aleksandar Đurđević, Rintaro Nakajima, Luka Pejčinović, Ryder Rickard, Ivan Ćosić, Masato Hagiwara, Antonio Cubleșan, Emanuele Frigo, Novak Blagojević
Orchestra and Chorus of the National Theatre in Belgrade
Concertmaster Dušan Panajotović
Choirmaster Jelena Miljević
Artistic Director of the Ballet Jovica Begojev
Executive Director of the Ballet Smiljana Stokić
Ballet producers Brankica Knežević, Gojko Davidović, Milorad Jovanović
Producer, Production, Domestic and International Cooperation Department Jelena Milivojević
Assistant choreographer Mihajlo Stefanović
Ballet répétiteurs Marija Bajčetić, Mihajlo Stefanović
Rehearsal pianist Natalija Mijailović
Assistant costume designer Milena Kostić Jojić
Millinery assistant Ida Ignjatović
Animation Dream Dust
Lighting designer Srđan Mićević
Make-up artist Marko Dukić
Stage crew Nevenko Radanović, Emil Ahmetović
Sound engineer Nebojša Kostić
Stage manager Dejan Filipović
Video production National Theatre in Belgrade Video Studio
Costumes and sets made in the workshops of the National Theatre in Belgrade