Opera in Ukraine

Ukrainian opera as an independent national opera emerged in the last third of the 19th century, based on the traditions of European and folk musical theater. Mykola Lysenko, who systematically worked in this genre, is considered to be the founder of the genre.

Maxim Berezovsky, the Author of the first Ukrainian Opera

The first opera by the Ukrainian composer was Maxim Berezovsky's Demofont on a libretto in Italian, which premiered in 1773.

The development of Ukrainian opera intensified after the creation of the first professional opera houses in the 1920s, but from 1930 until the collapse of the USSR it took place under the dominance of socialist realism as the official Soviet discourse.

Today the opera stages of Ukraine are the opera houses of Taras Shevchenko National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ukraine at Kyiv, Oddessa Opera House and Lviv Opera House. Operas are staged in opera studios at the conservatories of these cities. In addition, operas can be staged in musical and musical-dramatic theaters of other major cities of Ukraine.

History

Early History

The opera appeared in modern Ukraine in the 18th century. These were Italian and French operas staged in the estates of the wealthy nobility. The first known opera by the Ukrainian author is Maxim Berezovsky's Demofont, a typical Italian opera seria libretto by Pietro Metastasio, which premiered in 1773 in Livorno.

In the second half of the 18th century. Dmytro Bortnyansky also wrote three operas in Italian and three operas in French librettos.

Lviv Opera Theatre, the earliest of its kind in Ukraine

The first state theater in modern Ukraine was opened in Lviv, the center of Galicia, which was then part of the Habsburg monarchy (1772). From 1774 German operas were staged here (until 1872), and from 1780 Polish ones (until 1939). The Lviv Theater enjoyed special fame in 1873–1900, when Henryk Jarecki worked as the second and then the first conductor. From 1874 to 1875 and from 1878 to 1879, the Ukrainian baritone Hilary Dilinsky sang here.

The first theaters were opened in Kharkiv in 1780 in the territories of Ukraine enslaved by the Russian Empire. Opera performances have been staged in Kyiv since 1803, and in 1810 the Odessa Opera House was built (the Russian Opera Society was established here a year earlier). Initially, theaters in Ukraine did not have their own artists, but instead hosted foreign touring artists, mostly Italian opera troupes. Odessa became an important center of Italian and French opera, thanks to its important international importance as a trade center. Local composers also contributed to the Italian repertoire. and until the early twentieth century the repertoire was limited to the Italian repertoire.

Instead, the last third of the 19th century lacked conditions for the establishment of permanent theaters in the cities, and above all qualified personnel, while the gentry until the abolition of serfdom in 1861 could afford to keep orchestras and acting troupes of serfs. And only after the abolition of serfdom, the released musicians were able to work in theaters, the first of which in the Ukrainian Empire was Kiev (after theaters in Petrograd and Moscow.) October 27, 1867 was staged opera "Askold's Tomb" by Alexei Verstovsky , orchestrators were hired mainly from the disbanded slave orchestra of Count Peter Lopukhin (1788-1873), while the singers were brought by entrepreneur Ferdinand Berger from St. Petersburg.

Since 1874, operas in Russian were staged in Kharkiv. In 1886, the Kharkiv Theater fell into disrepair, but was rebuilt in 1890. Vaclav Suk was the conductor here, presenting his own opera Lesův pán (1892). In Odessa, Russian operas began to be staged in 1873, and Italian was displaced by 1910. After a fire in 1883, the theater was rebuilt in 1887. The repertoire of all three theaters focused on the royal opera in Petrograd (Mariinsky Theater) and Moscow (Bolshoi Theater), and only local musicians could present their works, but none of them showed a bright personality. From 1877, the German-language professional theater operated in Chernivtsi, first under the auspices of the city, and from 1884 under the auspices of the local theater team. The heyday of opera (and musical life in general) in Chernivtsi is associated with the name of the composer Wojciech Grzymala, who staged his own operas in Czech. Russian composers addressed the Ukrainian theme, including Rimsky-Korsakov (The Night Before Christmas, May Night) Tchaikovsky (Mazepa and Shoes) and Borodin (Prince Igor). In Ukrainian circles, however, these operas were perceived ambiguously, as they only remotely conveyed the Ukrainian spirit.

National roots of Ukrainian opera

Unlike many other national opera schools, it is a clear reliance on folk tradition, both musically and dramatically.

School Drama

From the beginning of the 17th century, a school drama appeared in Ukraine, the origins of which are connected with the Jesuit model, mediated by the Polish Catholic culture and the heritage of Orthodox institutions, including the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

School students acted out dramas for Christmas and Easter (mystery), as well as mysteries (from the lives of saints), morality (allegorical instructive drama) and historical dramas. From the beginning, they had distinct musical (vocal and instrumental) and dance components. School drama was performed on two levels: serious acts were performed at the upper level, and the characters used foreign languages ​​- Church Slavonic, Polish, Russian or Latin, and between serious acts at the lower level acted out an interlude whose characters were ordinary people. and they used the local language. Various music was used in the performances, often folk or close to folk.

Nativity scene

Also from the 17th century on the territory of Ukraine the tradition of the national theater was established, which was called the nativity scene. His dramaturgy is similar to school dramas: it has two parts, religious (most of which play Christmas) and secular, which are symbolically divided into two levels of the stage. The nativity scene reached a special development after 1765, when school dramas were banned at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. This popular puppet show was accompanied by live music. There was also the so-called "living nativity scene", in which ordinary actors played instead of dolls. In addition, the nativity scene was more detailed "earthly" part, crystallized typical characters and situations full of humor. The main character could be a brave Zaporozhian Cossack, also performed nedovtipný grandfather and quarrelsome grandmother, beautiful Daryna Ivanovna, frivolous bartender Khvasya, hedonistic deacon (chaplain), as well as characters representing other nationalities: Muscovites, Hungarians or Poles, Gypsies. 27] [30] These scenes often included folk rites or games and contained folk songs and dances.

A coin of Hryhoriy Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, the famous Ukrainian Comedy Author.

Ivan Petrovich Kotlyarevsky played an important role in the formation of the Ukrainian theater. As the author of the first example of Ukrainian satirical epic - the poem Aeneid, in 1819 he wrote two comedies for the Poltava National Theater - "Natalka Poltavka" and Moskal-magician, 1819. These plays, which take place in the Ukrainian countryside, take the form of vaudeville, contain songs and choirs, whose songs Kotlyarevsky partly wrote himself, but mostly used well-known urban and rural songs (the author's part is not fully understood). In drama, the author uses the traditions of interlude, nativity scene and his knowledge of Ukrainian folklore. [32] [33] Natalka Poltavka became the most popular of her time, performing both amateur and traveling, as well as fully professional theaters; famous playwright and theater organizer Ivan Karpenko-Kary called her "the mother of the Ukrainian National Theater."

Soon other similar plays appeared, authored by Hryhoriy Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, author of the popular comedies The Matchmaking at Honcharivka (1835) and Shelmenko the Batman (1837), or the Cossack General Yakiv Kukharenko (1799/1800). -1862), author of the ethnographic comedy "Black Sea beating in the Kuban between 1794-1796" (1836) . Compared to other European cultures (including Russian), where this genre gradually went out of fashion, Ukrainian vaudeville was very popular during the 19th century: for example, The Deceased Opanas, Anton Yankovsky, "Like a sausage and a glass, a quarrel will pass" or Mark Kropyvnytsky's "After the Audit." [14] All of these vaudeville were widely performed in various adaptations and musical editions, and individual songs and even scenes that were not rigidly tied to the plot moved from one performance to another.

Operetta

In the second half of the 19th century, an operetta became an intermediate step between a play with singing and an opera. The operetta genre quickly spread from the French court and in the early 60's was already popular in German and Polish theaters in Lviv. With the opening of a professional Ukrainian theater in this city, Mykhailo Verbytsky turned to the genre of operetta, based on the traditions of Ukrainian vaudeville. In particular, his operetta Pidhiryany (1865) became very popular, and other works soon appeared, such as Rural Plenipotenti (1879) on the subject of redemption from labor. Already "Pidhiryany" has the characteristic features of the Ukrainian "folk" operetta, and the Ukrainian rural environment and folk music. Another popular operetta author was Sidir Vorobkevich, author of the operettas Gnat Pribluda, Poor Martha, and Golden Pug.

Ukrainian Musical Theater in the Russian and Austrian Empires

The obstacle to the development of opera in the Ukrainian language at that time was the lack of professional theater. There was no shortage of Ukrainian audiences for the organization of permanent theaters: with the exception of Poltava, Ukrainians were in the minority in large Ukrainian cities. In addition, the attitude of the tsarist government to Ukrainian cultural activities was mostly negative. The tsar's attitude towards non-Russian national cultures deteriorated especially after the failed Polish uprising of 1863, and in 1876 the Ems decree banned even theatrical productions in Ukrainian (the ban lasted until 1881).

The center of Ukrainian (musical-) theatrical culture in these circumstances was the Austrian Lviv, where in 1864 the first permanent Ukrainian theater was founded, which worked under the auspices of the organization Russian Conversation.

Only in the early 1880s was the persecution of Ukrainian culture somewhat weakened, and the first professional Ukrainian-language theater emerged in the Russian Empire, the Mark Kropyvnytsky Nomadic Theater (1882). The theater was a success, and soon contributed to the emergence of new nomadic theater companies - Mikhail Staritsky, Panas Saksagansky, Ivan Karpenko-Kary and Nikolai Sadovsky. [44] The last of them, after the revolution of 1905, finally (in 1907) managed to create a permanent Ukrainian theater in Kiev.

Virtually all current Ukrainian theaters, amateur or professional, were musical and dramatic and their repertoire was dominated by productions with music (vaudeville, games, songs, operettas or even operas - in particular popular operas were "Pebbles" by S. Monyushko, Sold Bride by B. Smetana and "Village Honor" by P. Mascagni). However, at that time the capabilities of these theaters did not allow them to perform full-fledged opera productions. [39] Some theaters numbered up to 30-50 performers, orchestras were small - about 15 performers, and soloists were mostly broad-based actors, while talented singers went to Russian theaters early. [14] Even M. Sadovsky's theater did not have a larger troupe, although its composition was constantly updated by graduates of the music and drama school founded by M. Lysenko. [35]

The number of Ukrainian opera productions in the territories controlled by the Russian Empire remained insignificant and until the First World War was inferior to productions organized by the Lviv society Ruska Besida, although its plans to open its own theater also failed to materialize.

The first operas on Ukrainian-language librettos

Peter Sokalsky

The situation in the Ukrainian theatrical business hampered the appeal of Ukrainian composers to the opera genre. The range of possible themes of operas was limited not only by the orientation of theaters to public audiences, but also by tsarist censorship, which tolerated funny or sentimental folk tales, but did not allow serious social or historical themes.In addition, the works were performed by amateur groups, or, later, professional actors, rather than trained singers and without a large orchestra. As a result, until 1917, musical works could not actually get on the big stage until the author decided to write a work on a Russian text. Thus, the low operas of this period remained unfinished, unfinished or only in the design stage, in addition, most Ukrainian composers, respectively, lacked mastery of orchestration and musical drama.

Such was the fate of the first operas on Ukrainian texts by Petro Petrovich Sokalsky. His historical opera Mazepa of 1857-1859 depicts the fate of the Cossack Hetman Ivan Mazepa based on Pushkin's poem Poltava, but for practical and censorship reasons it is not performed. The Ukrainian reality in this opera is shown mainly through choirs, but in other respects the opera retains its focus on Italian traditions, and also contains certain dramatic and compositional shortcomings. The May Night, which Sokalsky wrote in 1862-1876 based on Gogol's short story, was not staged either. And in this opera the fragmentary nature of both the libretto (combining the texts of folk songs, Gogol, T. Shevchenko) and musical material (both peasant and urban folklore is used) prevails. "According to the story of M. Gogol" Taras Bulba "; The piano of this opera was published in 1884, but the opera was not staged and was marked by eclecticism.

Semyon Gulak-Artemovsky's Zaporozhye on the Danube was the first opera to be staged in Ukrainian (the 1863 premiere was in St. Petersburg). Gulak-Artemovsky, a famous singer of the Tsarist Opera, wrote this comic opera for the St. Petersburg Theater, and he played the lead role in it. This opera became very popular after the composer's death and was staged in Ukrainian in Lviv (1881) and by the troupe of Mark Kropyvnytsky (1884), although a number of songs from the opera became popular in the 70's. Zaporozhets has even been screened several times and is still an integral part of the Ukrainian repertoire. This opera combines elements of Western (especially Italian) opera with situations and characters from the Ukrainian National Theater and is based on Ukrainian folklore. This approach, which was continued by Mykola Lysenko, became for a long time the starting point for Ukrainian opera in general.

Mykola Lysenko

Mykola Lysenko, the Father of Ukrainian Opera

Mykola Vitaliyovych Lysenko is considered to be the de facto founder of Ukrainian opera. His friendship with Mykhailo Starytsky (1840-1904) played a key role in Lysenko's development as an opera composer. Lysenko wrote his first works on his or his texts: The Remaining Unrashiada (1866-1877), Chornomorets (1872) and the operetta Christmas Night (1874) based on Gogol. The latter was transformed into an opera house in St. Petersburg in 1874-1875, and was first staged in 1883, just after the repeal of the Ems Decree. The next opera, Drowned, was written on Gogol's plot. [14] In these works Lysenko gradually created a model of romantic-comic opera on themes from the life of the Ukrainian countryside, with simple action, but distinctive characters and situations, with a detailed depiction of folk customs and rituals, with conversational dialogues, song and choral music and dance numbers. in Ukrainian folk music, sometimes through direct citation, sometimes through stylization, but always in professional musical processing.

Natalka Poltavka on 2011 Ukraine Postage Stamps

Lysenko's adaptation of Kotlyarevsky's vaudeville "Natalka Poltavka" (1889) was the most popular, however. This opera remains the most frequently performed among the works of M. Lysenko and now. Later M. Lysenko turned to the genre of historical opera. Taras Bulba (1880-1891) became the first Ukrainian opera in the tradition of Western European great opera. It is noteworthy that there was no Ukrainian theater that could stage it at that time, but the composer refused to provide this opera for professional performance in Russian, as he was aware that in this case the opera would lose its symbolic significance as a national opera, and became just another folk song curiosity. [22] Thus, Taras Bulba was never staged during the composer's lifetime. Around the same time, Lysenko wrote three children's operas ("Goat-dereza", "Mr. Kotsky" and "Winter and Spring") for children's bard groups and based on folk tales and melodies; thus establishing the tradition of Ukrainian music pedagogy.

In the later period of his life Lysenko sought new ways to develop the folklore direction. In 1896–1904, he worked on the ancient Greek-language opera Sappho and used ancient Greek themes, but never finished. The satirical opera Aeneid (1910) is close to Jacques Offenbach's operettas and contains a scathing parody of the autocracy, numerous folklore scenes (the Olympic gods dance the hopak and the Trojans the Cossack). Lysenko's last work was Nocturne (1912), which poetically reflects the contrast between the old romantic world that is passing and the modern one.

Times of the Ukrainian state and "Ukrainization" (1917-1932)

The collapse of the Russian Empire and the formation of the Ukrainian state opened new opportunities for the development of Ukrainian opera. The Hetman's administration took a consistent and concrete position in the field of cultural development, as evidenced by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers on the mobilization of literary, scientific, artistic and technical forces of Ukraine. "La Traviata", "Shoes", "Hoffman's Tales", "Bohemia", "Sold Bride", "Mermaid", "Village Honor", "Jew", "Madame Butterfly". The national press wrote that the Ukrainian State Opera has every reason and potential to become one of the best theaters of its time, while warning that "Ukrainian State Opera should not repeat the history of Petrograd state theaters, which gave foreign culture and citizenship culture…" that it is necessary to "organize the work of the opera artistically strong, national and cultural" . In 1919, the State Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater in Kyiv was founded, headed by the great avant-garde director Les Kurbas. In particular, M. Lysenko's opera "Drowned" was staged here.

Ukraine's defeat in the war against Soviet Russia determined the difficult fate of Ukrainian musical art, and opera in particular in the twentieth century. The Bolsheviks' position on opera ranged from outright condemnation as a bourgeois genre (the proletarian cult considered opera a "disgrace to the dictatorship of the proletariat") to its desire to bring it closer to the working masses. As early as 1919, all theaters in the Soviet-occupied territories were nationalized, and the Russian-language Karl Liebknecht State Opera House was established in Kyiv. , however, faced significant organizational and financial obstacles and soon ceased to exist.

In the 1920s, opera houses in Kyiv, Odesa, and Kharkiv were renovated under state control. The repertoire includes classical works performed in Russian. The Odessa Theater, where the director VA Lossky (1919–1920) worked, was distinguished by the best quality and novelty of productions. Instead, the Ukrainian Musical Theater, which ceased operations with the capture of Kyiv by Denikin's troops, did not resume operations. Plans to create a Ukrainian opera in Kharkiv, then the capital of the Ukrainian republic, were not realized. [69] Productions of some works in Ukrainian ("Pebbles" and "Village Honor" in Kiev, "Pebbles" and "May Night" in Odessa, "Katerina" and "Pebbles" in Kharkiv) initially did not have much success: there was a lack of Ukrainian works suitable for the big stage, as well as quality translations.

In the mid-1920s, a policy of indigenization began in the USSR. In Ukraine, this policy was pursued under the leadership of Mykola Skrypnyk, and the Ukrainization of opera houses became an integral part of it. A significant event was the premiere in Kharkiv of M. Lysenko's opera Taras Bulba on October 3, 1924. Due to the success of this production, on April 23, 1925, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decided to establish the State Ukrainian Opera Theater in Kharkiv, which was opened on October 3, 1925 by the Russian composer M. Mussorgsky's Sorochinsky Fair. The following year, the opera houses in Kyiv and Odesa were also reorganized and "Ukrainianized." [38] [68] [79]

At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, the network of state theaters was supplemented by nomadic theaters: state groups whose task was to give opera performances in small towns. In 1928 the State Workers' Opera Theater (DROT) was established in Poltava, but in 1931 the theater moved to Dnipropetrovsk. In 1929, the State Ukrainian Right Bank Theater with its base in Vinnytsia was established. Finally, in the 1930s, the Nomadic Ukrainian Opera based in Kherson and the State Ukrainian Left Bank Theater based in Poltava emerged.

Early Soviet theater productions were characterized by experimental and avant-garde technologies inherent in expressionism or constructivism; they have found great application in Ukrainian opera scenes.

Operas such as Viktor Kosenko's Karmelyuk (1930) (1896–1938) and V. Yorysh's opera of the same name were created on historical themes, telling of the leader of the peasant uprising in Podillia in the first third of the 19th century. 68] [93] V. Zolotarev in his one-act opera-duma "Hvesko Andiber" (1927) first used the Ukrainian Duma and addressed the Cossack environment. B. Yanovsky followed the same path and on a larger scale in his opera The Black Sea Duma (1928), which takes place during the Turkish captivity of the Cossacks, but unlike the famous Cossack on the Danube decided in a serious way, the musical style is based on Russian tradition. classics and Giuseppe Verdi, to whom the score is dedicated.

The most striking example of Ukrainian historical opera was Borys Lyatoshynsky's opera The Golden Hoop (1930) based on the novel by Ivan Franko. The libretto combines historical and social themes with mythology, such a combination is embodied in the musical language, which organically combines modern at that time means of musical expression with the archaic Ukrainian folklore. The opera is built as a musical drama, has an extensive system of Leitmotifs. In the history of Ukrainian opera, the Golden Hoop is also the first characteristic representative of the "symphonic opera", ie opera with a rich use of orchestral means. This opera appeared at the end of the era of creative experiments, but the attack on creative freedom in the Stalinist era led to its short stage life.

The Fall of the USSR to Today

Since the 1990s, the Ukrainian Opera House has been operating under the pressure of a market economy, and for this reason concentrates on the popular world repertoire and only a limited range of classical Ukrainian works of the XIX century. Of the domestic works of the Soviet era, only a few works on historical themes have survived in the repertoire: Yaroslav the Wise by G. Maiboroda, Bohdan Khmelnytsky by K. Dankevych, and Stolen Happiness by Yu. Meitus. The works of contemporary composers, on the other hand, are represented on the opera stage only by chamber operas. Thus, V. Hubarenko's operas "Remember, My Brothers!" ), , Carmela Tsepkolenko's operas Portrait of Dorian Gray (1990) and Between Two Fires (1994), Alexander Kozarenko's chamber opera The Hour of Repentance (1997), Kolodub's opera The Poet. written in 1988, premiered in 2001, about T. Shevchenko) and "Village Opera" by E. Stankovich, first staged in 2011 in Tyumen\.

Miroslav Skorik

The concert premiered in 2011 with the premiere of Yevhen Stankovich's opera When the Fern Blooms, which was banned by censors in 1978. The stage production of the work was performed by the Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in 2017. The concert premiere was limited to the performance of V. Bibik's only opera - "Run" based on the play of the same name by M. Bulgakov (1972/1984). V. Kireiko's new "drama-drama" "Boyarynya" (written in 2003, premiere in 2008) based on Lesya Ukrainka's play of the same name was also presented in the concert performance. Virko Baley (b. 1938), who wrote the Holodomor (1985-2022) about the tragic events in Ukraine's history, works in the United States. The concert premiere of the chamber version of the opera took place in Las Vegas in February 2013 and was presented in Kyiv the same year.In 2011, Alexander Shchetinsky's opera "Bestiary" was staged at the Kharkiv Opera and Ballet Theater. In 2015, in Vienna, the soloists of the Viennese theaters and the Wiener Collage Ensemble staged Shchetinsky's opera "Interrupted Letter" based on the works of Taras Shevchenko.

Myroslav Skoryk's opera "Moses" was written on the occasion of the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ukraine in 2003. This opera was staged on two opera stages - in Lviv and in Kyiv and remains in the repertoire.This statement was made possible by the fact that most of the costs were borne directly by the Vatican. [108]

In 2021, notable events were the productions of Ivan Nebesny's opera "Nikita's Fox" at the Lviv National Opera and Alla Zahaikevych's opera "Embroidered. King of Ukraine" at the Kharkiv National Opera.

Opera Houses in Ukraine

There are currently seven opera houses in Ukraine:

the Taras Shevchenko National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv. The first city theater was built in 1804-1806, the building was replaced by a new building in 1856, and the current building (after the fire of 1896) in 1898-1900.

Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after Mykola Lysenko. Modern postmodern building of 1991-1992, in the historic building (1884-1885) is the Kharkiv Philharmonic.

Odessa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. The first city theater was built in 1810. The modern building was erected between 1884 and 1887 after the first one burned down in 1873.

The Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater operates in the building of the former Polish Opera House, built in 1897-1900. [6] [110] The building of the former city theater, built in 1842 by Count Stanislav Skarbek, now operates under the name of the National Academic Ukrainian Drama Theater named after Maria Zankovetskaya.

Anatoliy Solovyanenko Donetsk Academic State Opera and Ballet Theater. Located in a building erected in 1941. Since 2014, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it has been in the temporarily occupied territories.

Dnipropetrovsk Academic Opera and Ballet Theater (Dnipro). Opened in 1974 and housed in a modern building.

Kyiv Municipal Academic Opera and Ballet Theater for Children and Youth. Founded in 1982.