“I Never Sing Pieces I Don’ t Like”

Anatoly Solovyanenko Jr., son of the singer, was the director of the great tenor’s jubilee performance.

The famous Ukrainian tenor Anatoly Solovyanenko would be 70 on September 25. Alas, he did not live to celebrate the anniversary. The life of Anatoly Borysovych came abruptly to an end three years ago, on a hot day in July, as a result of an extensive heart stroke. Nevertheless, his voice is still heard on the radio and television. Death was not enough for the legendary singer to be consigned to oblivion. Solovyanenko is still loved and remembered. One can always find natural flowers lying by his place in Instytutskaya St., where a bronze monument has recently been set up. A memorial table will appear on the front of the building. The jubilee celebrations are patronized by the Ministry of Culture and Arts of Ukraine. There will be concerts in the singer’s hometown of Donetsk at the local opera bearing now his name. In Kyiv ceremonial performances have taken place on the two main academic stages of the state. On September 24, on the eve of Anatoly Borysovych’s birthday, a concert took place in the Philharmonic, in which arias and duets from operas, as well as Italian and Ukrainian songs were heard. And on September 25 Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti was performed in the National Opera House, with today’s primas and primes of the Kyiv theater acting. Anatoly Solovyanenko Jr, son of the singer, is the director of the soirees. The celebrations’ schedule includes a memorial meeting on the artist’s grave in Kozyn (Kyiv oblast) and opening a small memorial museum, with a series of television and radio programs also on hand. The schedule comprises presenting Ala Tereshchenko’s photo album Anatoly Solovyanenko and showing film Prelude to Destiny on television.

‘The last years of Anatoly Borysovych, after he had left the Opera House, were closely connected with the Philharmonic, since its administration would give him an opportunity to play a lot on this wonderful stage,’ – said the singer’s widow Svitlana Solovyanenko. – ‘Still my husband dedicated his best years to the Kyiv Opera. He made his debut as the Duke in Rigoletto, opera by Verdi, on November 22, 1963. Incidentally, he was acting wearing the costume that he had got as a present from his teacher of vocal Oleksandr Korobeychenko. My husband would keep it with care. The costume will become one of the numerous exhibits at the Solovyanenko museum in Donetsk. Donbas is the singer’s homeland, but it is Kyiv where he became a professional. Here he tasted success and fame and sang his best parts. Those were: Edgar in Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti, Alfred in Verdi’s Traviata, Andriy in Zaporozhzhian Cossack beyond the Danube by Hulak-Artemovsky, Rudolf in La Boheme, Mario in Puccini’s Tosca, title part in Gounod’s Faust, False Dmitry in Boris Godunov. by Mussorgsky, etc. Here he also received an incurable wound, when envy and intrigues made him leave the theater at the peak of his powers.’

‘We have decided to make two different performances. The colleagues of Anatoly Borysovych will appear on the stage of the Philharmonic with his best-known parts, romances and folk songs. As for Lucia di Lammermoor in the National Opera, one can call it a memorial performance. First, Anatoly Borysovych himself used to sing brilliantly in that opera. Secondly, that was our son Anatoly who staged the new scenic version, so that the name Solovyanenko is back again to the Kyiv Opera. Hopefully, they will soon quit adding ‘junior’. Anatoly cannot imagine his life without art, just like his father did. They have a strong inner resemblance to each other, both being purposeful and persistent in achieving their goals.’

‘Anatoly Borysovych was often asked of his favorite operas, romances and songs. The singer would answer: ‘I never sing pieces that I don’t like, for I put my whole soul into performance of whatever it would be, a play or a concert. Every part, romance, serenade, ballad, or folk song is my beloved child.’ Ukrainian and Italian songs, without which the audience would not let him go off the stage, were his best parts. According to Svitlana, ‘The Moon in the Sky’, ‘Black Eyebrows’, ‘I am Looking at the Sky’, ‘The Night is Moonlit’, ‘Blow, the Wind’ had been in his repertoire for a long time, but Anatoly Borysovych was constantly working on them smoothing the words and phrases. In his last years he would bitterly remark: ‘It must be good I am not acting much now, since I have more time to work on the nuances.’ For instance, as a young man, Solovyanenko would sing ‘The High Mount Stands’ with exultation and enthusiasm, while in his last concerts the song was full of grief on the lost expectancies. He used to treat everything related to music with great care and take painfully his failures or the ones of his partners in the play. He used to say, “All actors play the same game”. In the next issues of The Day you will be able to find out how the singer prepared for his plays, read about his study at the La Scala theater, of his friends and colleagues, and what he was like onstage and in private life, along with many other things.