55 years ago on May 8, 1943 a bomb fell on the National Opera House in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Eyewitnesses said the German music conductor BrЯckner played Beethoven’s Ninth in Kyiv. The choir and the orchestra, constituted partially by local Ukrainian and German musicians sang: “Give each other a hug, millions.” Was that a blasphemy or just the act of rebellion of the genius composer, whom Hitler did not really like?
Bruckner came to the Kyiv Opera in early 1942. He immediately canceled Ukrainian and Tchaikovsky operas from the repertoire. He substituted them with Wagner’s “Tannhauser” and “Lohengrin”, Bizet’s “Carmen”, Verdi’s “Otello” and “Aida”, Puccini’s “La Boheme”. All were performed in the original language. BrЯckner practiced also classical parts of the operetta. Beethoven’ and Tchaikovsky’s music constituted the symphonic programs, while Kyiv musicians played for German Gauleiter Erich Koch in Rivne.
Those who worked with Bruckner then still think of him as of a great professional. Ukrainian musicians in the orchestra had good relations with their German colleagues. Ukrainian and German singers had no problems either. Some time ago Literaturna Ukraina, the organ of the Writers Union, wrote something about a gun BrЯckner used to put beside the musical score, but what did a gun have to do with all this? Musicians say this rumor is totally false.
Anatoly Kusnetsov, writing about occupied Kyiv in his book, Babyn Yar, said that there was one day when musicians ran out of the building in their theatrical costumes, wiping the make-up off their faces. This was on May 8, 1943. According to the Iryna Khoroshunova’s diary (partially published in Khronika-XX), it was the second part of Lohengrin. During a short bombing one of the bombs fell through the Opera’s cupola onto the twelfth row. Four German officers were killed and another ten badly injured. The building was repaired very quickly, although the acoustics of the dome were considerably worse.
Photo from the archive of French horn player Dmytro Kazantsev, published first







