Ukrainian Melody For a Japanese Flute

The signing ceremony of an agreement on a Japanese cultural grant as audio equipment and musical instruments for the Taras Shevchenko National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet took place in Kyiv last Tuesday.

This was the fourth Japanese government’s substantial contribution to Ukrainian culture in line with its cooperation program. The first shipment of Yamaha instruments was received by the orchestra of the National Philharmonic Society, then audio and video equipment was supplied to the National History Museum. Last year, yet another shipment of audio equipment was delivered to the Ivan Franko National Academic Theater. Now it was the National Opera’s turn. The agreement was signed by Ukrainian Minister of the Economy and Integration Oleksandr Shlapak and Japanese Ambassador Hitoshi Honda. The grant is worth 48,600,000 yen (approximately $370,000).

“This money will allow us to renovate the theater’s symphony orchestra’s equipment and musical instruments,” said National Opera General Director Petro Chupryna, “and we’ll receive the money during the year. The Japanese side carried out several expert examinations of our equipment, particularly the acoustic characteristics of the audience and technical parameters. I’m sure that Japanese assistance makes it possible for us to significantly improve the quality of performance and keep it at the contemporary level. The mastery of our actors and musicians is known the world over. Our company has toured Japan more than once and every time we had a flattering press. Our ballet troupe includes Japanese dancers, first-rate soloists Takita Sinabu and Nabihiro Terada (the latter is a graduate of the capital’s college of choreography, Japanese choreographer Yamato staged The Wings of Darkness on our stage.”

The Opera’s Chief Stage Director Dmytro Hnatiuk added that giving the best performances to Japanese audiences has become a tradition. National Opera soloists tour Japan every two years. Prima donnas Hizela Tsypola, Lidiya Zabiliasta, Viktoriya Lukyanets, and others have in different years won contests for the title role in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. Dmytro Hnatiuk has also performed in Japan on more than one occasion. He is still amused to recall the microphone going dead in a Tokyo audience seating 12,000 during his performance in the mid-1970s. Without batting an eyelash he went on singing, to a standing ovation and encore. After the concert he was besieged by journalists: Wasn’t he afraid of losing his voice? He frankly told them that he had sung without a mike during rehearsals and been amazed by the excellent acoustics. “I wish we had an audience like that,” he sighed. “Well, let’s hope that with the new equipment our theater will show excellent technical characteristics and that our performances will be more spectacular.”