Yalta, Yalta musical composer, Alfi Kabiljo, dies

Croatian composer and musician Alfons "Alfi" Kabiljo has died at the age of 89.

Kabiljo's career spanned more than six decades, during which he composed dozens of film scores, eleven musicals, and two ballets. His best-known work is the musical Yalta, Yalta, which has been performed more than 1,500 times and translated into several languages. The musical is about the 1945 Yalta Conference between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin.

One anecdote about Kabiljo, as told by Đurđa Golubić, then a member of the choir, relates to Yalta, Yalta.

It happened at one particular performance when everything went wrong. At the moment when the ensemble was about to sing the famous chorus "Let this whole world...," someone in the orchestra missed a note. The actors looked at each other, tried to continue, but an awkward chord threw them off tune. The theater fell silent for a moment. And then one of the actors, in the spirit of the play, laughed and said: "Comrade Stalin suggests we try again!"

Later, Kabiljo told this story as proof that Yalta, Yalta was more than just a musical. It was a bit of musical diplomacy in which laughter was a key ingredient.