{"id":50760,"date":"2023-06-04T21:13:04","date_gmt":"2023-06-04T18:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archive.opera.lviv.ua\/?p=50760"},"modified":"2023-06-07T16:20:51","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T13:20:51","slug":"soldiers-sirens-and-a-sign-of-hope-as-ukrainian-opera-premieres-in-lviv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.opera.lviv.ua\/en\/soldiers-sirens-and-a-sign-of-hope-as-ukrainian-opera-premieres-in-lviv\/","title":{"rendered":"Soldiers, sirens and a \u2018sign of hope\u2019 as Ukrainian opera premieres in Lviv\/ The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlotte Higgins in Lviv<\/em>
\nThu 11 May 2023 05.00 BST<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Singers perform in the opera The Terrible Revenge, based on the story by Nikolai Gogol, at the Lviv National Opera. Photograph: Emre \u00c7aylak\/The Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n

After an unplanned intermission, opera based on Gogol\u2019s The Terrible Revenge swerves its tragic ending<\/p>\n

Lviv\u2019s opera house is a magnificent, Habsburg-era froth of red velvet, gilded cornicing and writhing caryatids. And to the casual observer, the audience, as they settled into their seats, could have been opera lovers anywhere in Europe \u2013 but for a few small details.<\/p>\n

First, the presence of uniformed soldiers in the boxes and prime seats of the stalls. Second, the pre-show announcement that, after asking patrons to switch off their phones, offered instructions on what to do in the event of an air raid alert.<\/p>\n

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People wait for the start of the opera after the sirens. Photograph: Emre \u00c7aylak\/The Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n

Third, the fact that, before settling into the overture, the orchestra struck up the national anthem \u2013 at which the audience rose as one and, hands clamped to chests, sang with full operatic fervour.<\/p>\n

The show was a new opera by Yevhen Stankovych, at 80 one of Ukraine\u2019s most significant senior composers, getting its premiere in the teeth of Russia\u2019s war.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the full-scale invasion \u2013 and especially given Vladimir Putin\u2019s insistence that Ukraine is historically indivisible from Russia \u2013 culture and the arts are part of the country\u2019s resistance.<\/p>\n

Based on Gogol\u2019s short story The Terrible Revenge, the opera was directed by Andreas Weirich, a house director at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. \u201cWe did some of the rehearsals in the bomb shelter,\u201d he said. \u201cAt times there were four air raid sirens a day \u2013 it became a new normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opera house itself, in its relatively safe position, became a haven in the early days of the war for colleagues from other companies farther east. It is one of six Ukrainian opera houses and the farthest west \u2013 though one of those six, in Donetsk, has been under illegal occupation by Russia since 2014.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ukrainians in front of the Lviv National Opera. Photograph: Emre \u00c7aylak\/The Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n

It initially took in members of the Kharkiv State Opera and Ballet Theatre, whose building was pummelled by Russian artillery in spring and summer last year.<\/p>\n

And at the moment, five company members of the Lviv National Opera \u2013 two ballet dancers, two set painters and an opera singer \u2013 are fighting on the frontline, in Bakhmut and the Donetsk region.<\/p>\n

Before the evening\u2019s performance, Taras Berezhansky and Daryna Lytovchenko, who sang the roles of Danilo, the Cossack at the centre of Gogol\u2019s folktale, and his wife, Katerina, reflected on the power of performing Ukrainian contemporary music during a time of invasion.<\/p>\n

Premiering the work was \u201cnot just important, it\u2019s necessary \u2013 because we have for so long undervalued ourselves, hiding behind Russian culture\u201d, Lytovchenko said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s emotional for us not only performing at this time, but because we\u2019re giving a message to the audience about what\u2019s happening in our shared history with Russia,\u201d Berezhansky said from his dressing room, its windows taped up in the ubiquitous wartime measure against shattering glass.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe Terrible Revenge is based on the story by Nikolai Gogol. Photograph: Emre \u00c7aylak\/The Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n

He was referring to the opera\u2019s storyline, in which Danilo\u2019s father-in-law, the Witcher, turns out to be a dark force, intent on death and destruction.<\/p>\n

And, although Weirich was careful not to make too obvious an identification \u2013 \u201cIt would have been a very flat idea to give the Witcher a Putin mask,\u201d he said \u2013 it was not a great leap for audiences to make the connection between the character and the Russian president as the story unfolded on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story is like a myth \u2013 it tells you what can happen. Myths always come around again,\u201d Weirich said.<\/p>\n

Half an hour into the performance, a figure discreetly walked across the front row of the stalls and leaned over the edge of the orchestra pit, whispering into the conductor Volodymyr Sirenko\u2019s ear.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe chief conductor, Volodymyr Sirenko, at the Lviv National Opera. Photograph: Emre \u00c7aylak\/The Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n

Without fuss, Sirenko brought the music to a halt and the curtain came down: an air raid warning. The audience dutifully filed down to the bomb shelter \u2013 which, happily for all concerned, was also the opera house\u2019s bar.<\/p>\n

After half an hour later, the alert \u2013 raised in this case because of MiG fighter jets taking off in Russia \u2013 was lifted and the performance resumed.<\/p>\n

The show continued without incident. Readers of Gogol, though, would have noticed that the libretto and production swerved the bleakly tragic outcome of the original short story.<\/p>\n

In the Gogol, the Witcher murders Danilo and Katerina\u2019s young son. In Stankovych\u2019s opera, he survives \u2013 a moment reinforced by Weirich\u2019s production, which has the young child impatiently pushing away his murderous grandfather.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nDaryna Lytovchenko at the Lviv National Opera. Photograph: Emre \u00c7aylak\/The Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI had to give the Ukrainians a way to end the curse \u2013 I had to give a sign of hope,\u201d Weirich said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a few utterly minor changes that I made to the end,\u201d said Stankovych, speaking from Kyiv. \u201cThis is because I, as a human and as a composer, could not accept that no heirs could be left to inherit this land \u2026 Because Gogol has, of course, a rather tragic and terrible ending.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not the first opera Stankoych has based on the Ukrainian writer\u2019s work. In 1978, his folk opera When the Fern Blooms was about to be premiered when, as the composer recalled, \u201cit was banned, it was removed after the dress rehearsal\u201d. The sets and costumes were destroyed and the score consigned to \u201cthe dusty storerooms of the archive\u201d, in the words of a review of its eventual premiere, in 2011.<\/p>\n

The Soviet authorities \u201ckindly welcomed me not to talk about this too much \u2026 and the matter was closed,\u201d Stankovych recalled.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe audience watch the performance in Lviv. Photograph: Emre \u00c7aylak\/The Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn short, in the Soviet Union there was a systematic \u2013 or sometimes brightly expressed \u2013 silent, gentle struggle against Ukrainian culture, language, against Ukrainian consciousness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For the moment, Russian composers are absent from the Lviv opera house programme. That is not a problem for Lytovchenko, the soprano. \u201cWhen I\u2019m singing Stankovych, I don\u2019t miss Russian composers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/may\/11\/ukrainian-opera-the-terrible-revenge-premiere-lviv-soldiers-hope<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlotte Higgins in Lviv Thu 11 May 2023 05.00 BST Singers perform in the opera…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":50786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,95,60],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSoldiers, sirens and a \u2018sign of hope\u2019 as Ukrainian opera premieres in Lviv\/ The Guardian - Lviv National Opera<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Soldiers, sirens and a \u2018sign of hope\u2019 as Ukrainian opera premieres in Lviv\/ The Guardian - Lviv National Opera\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Charlotte Higgins in Lviv Thu 11 May 2023 05.00 BST Singers perform in the opera...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.opera.lviv.ua\/soldiers-sirens-and-a-sign-of-hope-as-ukrainian-opera-premieres-in-lviv\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lviv National Opera\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-04T18:13:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-07T13:20:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.opera.lviv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot_189-e1685912665493.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1221\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"610\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"lvivopera.baza@gmail.com\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.opera.lviv.ua\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.opera.lviv.ua\/\",\"name\":\"Lviv National Opera\",\"description\":\"Official website Lviv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named by Solomia Krushelnytska\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.opera.lviv.ua\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.opera.lviv.ua\/soldiers-sirens-and-a-sign-of-hope-as-ukrainian-opera-premieres-in-lviv\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.opera.lviv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot_189-e1685912665493.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.opera.lviv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot_189-e1685912665493.jpg\",\"width\":1221,\"height\":610},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.opera.lviv.ua\/soldiers-sirens-and-a-sign-of-hope-as-ukrainian-opera-premieres-in-lviv\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.opera.lviv.ua\/soldiers-sirens-and-a-sign-of-hope-as-ukrainian-opera-premieres-in-lviv\/\",\"name\":\"Soldiers, sirens and a \\u2018sign of hope\\u2019 as Ukrainian opera premieres in Lviv\/ The Guardian - 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