Zorka Todosić (1 April 1864 – 28 December 1936, in Cyrillic Зорка Тодосић) was a Serbian stage actress and operetta singer, associated with the

National Theatre in Belgrade The National Theatre ( sr-cyr, Народно позориште, Narodno pozorište) is a theatre located in Belgrade, Serbia. Founded in the later half of the 19th century, it is located on the Republic Square, at the corner of Vasina and Fra ...

Early life

Zorka Kolarovic was born at

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...

, the daughter of Dimitrije Kolarovic (1839-1899) and Ljubica Kolarovic (1836-1890), both actors, and part of the Popovic family. She was raised and educated in Belgrade. She studied music and acting with

Davorin Jenko Davorin Jenko (born Martin Jenko; 9 November 1835 – 25 November 1914) was a Slovene composer. He is sometimes considered the father of Slovenian national Romantic music. Among other songs, he composed the melody for the Serbian national anthem " ...

and Tosa Jovanović.

Career

Zorka Kolarovic began performing in childhood with her parents.Tatjana LOŠ
"Prva pozorišna Koštana"
''Novosti-Online'' (2 March 2016). She joined the National Theatre in Belgrade as a young woman, and was a star there for decades. She was billed as "Zorka Todosić", originally by mistake, but she kept the simplification of her married name as her stage name. She was the first to play

Borislav Stanković ),Boris (Борис) , image = Borislav Bora Stanković.jpg , imagesize = , caption = , order = 2nd , office = Secretary General of FIBA , term_start = 1 January 1976 , ter ...

's ''

Koštana ''Koštana'' ''(Serbian Cyrillic: Коштана'') is a popular play, written by Borisav Stanković. It is set in Stanković's native Vranje, a town in southern Serbia. It features many themes of Serbian folklore and patriarchal customs which we ...

'' when the play debuted in 1900,M. Đorđević
"I to je (bio) Balkan: Zaljubljen u prvu Koštanu"
Vesti-Online (14 November 2017). and she played the role for the next six years. She was often cast in "

soubrette A soubrette is a type of operatic soprano voice ''fach'', often cast as a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy". Theatre In theatre, a soubrette is a c ...

" roles, especially in adaptations from Moliere. Her acting career ended when she developed memory problems associated with

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

; her last stage appearance was in

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...

in 1915.

Personal life

Zorka Kolarovic married banker Milan Teodosijevic; she cared for him through a long terminal illness, taking a break from her stage career from 1880 to 1886. She was also involved with poet

Vojislav Ilić Vojislav Ilić (Serbian Cyrillic: Војислав Илић; 14 April 1860 – 21 January 1894) was a Serbian poet, known for his finely chiseled verse. His poetry exemplifies a classic example of modern Serbian language and features the standar ...

, before he died in 1894. Zorka Todosić died in 1936, more than twenty years after her last stage role. She was 72 years old. Her story was told in a documentary series on television in Serbia in 2017, to mark the 150th anniversary of the National Theatre."Kroz tragične sudbine Vele Nigrinove i Zorke Todosić: Narodno pozorište u 10 činova"
''Glossy'' (December 15, 2017).

References

External links

Headshot in profile of Zorka Todosić
photographed by Milan Jovanović, in the collection of the Museum of Theater Art of Serbia.
A full-length portrait of Zorka Todosić
photographed by Milan Jovanović, in the collection of the Museum of Theatre Art in Serbia. {{DEFAULTSORT:Todosić, Zorka 1864 births 1936 deaths Serbian actresses Actors from Novi Sad People from the Kingdom of Serbia Actresses from Austria-Hungary