Liubko Deresh and Lesia Ukrainka now available as CD audio books
Works by contemporary Ukrainian authors and plays from Ukrainian Radio’s “Gold Fund” recorded on CDs
On Dec. 14 the first 12 CDs of the Contemporary Prose and Radio Theater series were issued in Ukraine. The inaugural series includes the best works of Yurii Andrukhovych, Yurko Pokalchuk, Stepan Pushynka, Taras Prokhasko, Larysa Denysenko, Irene Rozdobudko, Liubko Deresh, and Yurii Vynnychuk. The second series, consisting of two CDs, features the plays of Lesia Ukrainka, including The Stone Cross, Autumn Tale, Cassandra, The Orgy, The Boyar Woman, Forest Song, In the Catacombs, and An Old Tale.
The latest technology was used to prepare and record these high-quality CDs in a convenient MP3 format. In this project the Ukrainian company A.E.L. involved leading Ukrainian actors, literary and theater critics, and literary specialists, such as Larysa Khorolets, Serhii Boiko, Dmytro Stus, Diana Klochko, and Nina Novoselytska.
“We finally did it,” says literary historian and professor of Taras Shevchenko National University Anatolii Tkachenko, “although, to be honest, these audio books should have been released some five years ago. What are our young people watching and listening? Recently I attended a conference in Germany, where Columbia University lecturer Yuri Shevchuk screened films made by young Ukrainian directors. After the show the students said that they had watched or heard about them. Then I asked my own students, but they knew nothing about these documentaries or shorts.”
Audio books are a new trend in the development of modern literature and art. A. E. L. is the first Ukrainian company that specializes in releasing CD series featuring the best works of contemporary Ukrainian literature. “We want to popularize among people of various age groups an easy and enjoyable way to become familiar with contemporary Ukrainian and foreign literatures, including fiction and specialized literature,” says A. E. L.’s director Olena Zhyhylevych.
“Ukraine still lacks a specialized audio-book/CD-purchasing culture, so we are working on this.” Zhyhylevych is putting special emphasis on the Radio Theater, noting that the release of this CD series marks the rebirth of the genre in a new audio format. “Just try to imagine entire generations having grown up without ever hearing the voice of the brilliant actor Ambrosii Buchma,” says the noted radio journalist Nina Novoselytska, who was one of the founders of the Radio Theater programs.
“Who but us can make this gift to our listeners, an opportunity to hear this beautiful voice and sense the man’s wide range of talents?” The library of the Ukrainian Radio has a repository of tapes with footage totaling nearly 200,000 hours, including unique recordings,” says Mykola Amosov, who is in charge of Ukrainian Radio’s creative archives. “This audio library was compiled over half a century by noted Ukrainian journalists, actors, and theater directors. I am happy to know that these unique dramatic works (we have tapes of practically all Ukrainian plays) will be made available as CDs because the sad fact is that they are very seldom played by radio stations. The reason is not only lack of airtime. When you have over 200 plays, some of them tend to be broadcast once a year, maybe less frequently. I believe that the Ministry of Education and Science should be among the first to draw attention to this collection because how much better can you study literature than through the performances of celebrated actors.”
Every CD, regardless of its length (4-16 hours plus an electronic version of the introductory article), sells for 50 hryvnias. According to Olena Zhyhylevych, special programs will become available early next year, and students and people with impaired eyesight will be able to pay considerably less for such disks.
The CD series including Foreign Literature in Ukrainian Literary Translation, Tales of Existence, Educational Literature (history, psychology, philosophy), and World Drama Classics will soon go on sale in stores.
