Western breakthrough

Though it may be hard to believe, Kyiv opera artists performed in Lviv for the last time in 1940, with a great and versatile repertoire. The tour started on March 26, 1940, with the patriotic production Ivan Susanin (the primary title of this work is Living in the Tsar’s Time; it tells about the Polish nobility’s campaign against Muscovy), followed by the then classical Ukrainian operas, specifically Natalka Poltavka by Mykola Lysenko, and ended with the opera Shevchenko by the contemporary Volodymyr Yorysh (Poet’s Destiny, 1940), based on the plot of the Sava Holovanovsky’s play. Galicians also saw such operas as The Queen of Spades by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, as well as the propaganda play During a Storm with quite interesting music by Tikhon Khrennikov (the opera tells about establishing Bolshevik power in villages and how peasant petitioners Frol and Andrii went to the Moscow Kremlin on foot, seeking truth). The Kyiv theater also showed its ballets, the classical Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky and the heroic production Laurencia (the music was composed by the Soviet composer Aleksandr Krein in 1939, the ballet uses the plot of Lope de Vega’s play Fuenteovejuna, depicting the struggle of Spanish peasants against feudal lords). The theater’s archives keep reviews from that tour, which say that it was an immense success and symbolized fraternal unity of east and west. The tour can also be called a propaganda action of the then Soviet government, because we should keep in mind the fact that repressions already started at the time, and not all Galicians met “Red occupants” with flowers.

What has been keeping the Kyiv Theater from going on a tour to Lviv for so long, though the company has performed in other corners of the world? Didn’t they receive any invitations? Did they have any other priorities?

“Our singers, dancers, and musicians have taken part in concerts and productions of the Lviv Opera House as premieres, but it will be indeed for the first time in seven decades that the entire company of our theater will go there,” head of the information-publishing agency of the National Opera Vasyl Turkevych told The Day. “In Soviet times and at the beginning of independence theaters had other priorities. For us and our fellow artists from Lviv it was important to present Ukrainian art abroad. Incidentally, they have had full-fledged tours only twice in the capital (in 1993 there was a grand tour, when the Leopolitans staged the opera Moses by Myroslav Skoryk, marking the 100th anniversary of their theater; the premiere took place during Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ukraine). It should be admitted that there were technical problems for a long time. Before the reconstruction works, the Lviv Opera House had a small stage, which had too little space for our theater’s decorations. Today, after the revamp, the stage has been reconstructed and enlarged, so there is enough room for our monumental decorations to Norma and Lord of Borysfen. For our theater this tour will be a creative exam before the refined Lviv audience.”

On April 8 the Kyiv theater will show its latest premiere, the ballet Lord of Borysfen by Yevhen Stankovych. The play will bring the audience back to the 5th century AD and tell about Prince Kyi, one of the founders of Kyiv. The libretto was written by Anatolii Tolstoukhov, Volodymyr Zubanov, and Vasyl Turkevych. The choreographer is Viktor Yaremenko, the conductor Oleksii Baklan, production designers are Oleksii Chebykin and Oleksandr Tzuhorka, and the main parts are performed by Olena Filipieva (Zoreslava), Kateryna Kukhar (Oktavia), Yan Vania (Kyi), Maksym Motkov (Irnek) et al.

On April 9 the Lviv audience will see the masterly lyrical tragedy Norma by Vincenzo Bellini. The opera appeared on the bills of the National Opera House in December 2007, and this year the production won the Shevchenko Prize (director: Anatolii Solovianenko; conductor: Mykola Diadiura; Serhii Mahera plays Oroveso and Oksana Kramarieva plays Norma). The production shows the cruel time when the Gauls were conquered by the Roman Republic. Passions — love, treachery, revenge, insight, sacrifice — are whirling in this opera, and the lyrical scenes intertwine with patriotic motives. The role of seeress Norma will be performed by the young talented singer Viktoria Chenska (the Shevchenko Prize winner Kramarieva is on maternity leave), whereas Serhii Mahera will play the chief of the Druids, Oroveso. Lviv music lovers will appreciate his splendid bass and the dramatic part he plays. The performance will also include the soloists Oleksandr Hurets (Pollione), Natalia Nykolaishyn (Adalgisa), Oleksandr Diachenko (Flavio) and Tetiana Kharuzova (Clotilde) et al. Norma’s cavatina, called by music experts “an exemplar of melodiousness and classics of bel canto” (the maestro Bellini rewrote it eight times, and created a real masterpiece in the end), makes the opera particularly worth listening to.

The organizers of the tour of the National Opera say that these performances will become a creative breakthrough and a bridge between Kyiv and Lviv.