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Welcome to the Ukrainian Arts Monitor!
Welcome to the Ukrainian Arts Monitor - the first Ukrainian
e-mail publication that deals with The Arts. Based in Lviv,
U.A.Monitor is a starter publication. Anticipating long term
growth and development, sources are now being organized in major
Ukrainian cities and regions to provide complete coverage of
Ukrainian cultural events. In addition, U.A.Monitor will include
Ukrainian cultural events that occur outside its borders.
The objective of U.A.Monitor is to become a network provider of
information about Ukrainian music and art to all internet users
as well as to mass media organizations in Ukraine and the West.
This information (published in both Ukrainian and English) is
provided to all interested organizations and individuals without
cost. Sources of information about Ukrainian events abroad may
be forwarded to U.A.Monitor to the following e-mail address
<UAM@ukrainet.lviv.ua>.
Utilizing the wide range of information
technologies, this information will also be distributed to major
news agencies, mass media organizations, foreign companies, and
embassies in Ukraine.
In order to be a free e-mail source for Ukrainian culture,
U.A.Monitor must be a sponsorship supported publication.
Presently, U.A.Monitor is soliciting organizations and
individuals for support. Sponsors will be listed with each
issue. More information on how to become a sponsor can be
obtained from the addresses listed at the end of this
publication.
--U.A.Monitor.
Peremyshl - An Explosive Festival
The 14th Festival of Ukrainian Culture ended on July 2nd in
Peremyshl (Poland). The four day festival took place in concert
halls that featured music and dancing by amateur and professional
artists from Ukraine and Poland. Though the festival was
considered a success, the event was plagued with various problems
that included misunderstandings at the Ukrainian-Polish border,
where several artists had visa problems and were not allowed to
cross the border. There was also some anti-Ukrainian activity and
picketing in the streets during the festivities. One incident
even included a terrorist act. On the night of July 1st, an
explosive device and bottle of gasoline were thrown into the
window of a dormitory where festival participants were resting.
There were no casualties.
--"Moloda Halychyna".
Ukraine's favorite singer dies: Nazarij Yaremchuk
After a long bout with cancer, the forty-four year old Ukrainian
pop artist, Nazarij Yaremchuk, died in Chernivtsi on June 30.
The singer from Bukovyna was one of the original members of the
vocal-instrumental ensemble "Smeritchka" that was formed almost
30 years ago. In 1972, along with Vasyl' Zinkevytch, Sofia
Rotaru, and Volodymyr Ivasiuk, the ensemble received instant
success in Ukraine and all other parts of the former Soviet Union
with songs that are sung by youth even today. In his last
interview with the Ukrainian newspaper "Moloda Halytchyna" one
month ago, Yaremtchuk voiced his dismay with today's popular
singers in Ukraine. He felt that most singers "copy others" and
"do not search themselves". He also stated that the present
trend in Ukrainian popular music is its "centralization" in the
country's capitol, Kyiv.
--"Visti z Ukrainy".
Nina's Concert
Ukrainian folk singer, Nina Matvienko, gave a concert in Strij
(Lviv Oblast) in the Folk Building of Culture on Saturday, July
1st. The concert organized by State Deputy Ihor Ostash for the
Children's Fund of Strij Region also included performances by the
Morshyn children's choir "Dzereltse" and the 14 year-old singer
Ulana D'jak. Mourning the untimely death of Ukrainian singer
Nazarij Yaremchuk (June 30), Matvienko improvised her performance
around autobiographical details of her life and related them to
her mother's life experiences.
Sweden's Organ Concert
On July 1st and 2nd in the Lviv Organ Recital Hall, Father Max
Mauritson of Stockholm presented a diverse program of works for
solo organ. The program featured over 16 compositions and 4
encore pieces. As the after-the-program works indicate, the
audience was receptive to the priest's artistic interpretations.
Though, what surprised people the most was the man himself, that
is, his fluent knowledge of at least eight languages, including
Ukrainian. As Julian Vynnytskij explained at the concert's
opening, the Swedish priest became interested in Ukrainian
religion and culture early in his career after becoming friends
with a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest in Rome. The following is
a selected listing of the concert's program:
Cesar Franck: Grand Choeur
Arthur Bird: Improvisation
Antonio Arnaldi: Allegretto
Albert W. Ketelbey: Meditation for the Great Fast
Kenneth Grange: Music for a Wedding
Preludia (Wedding March)
Cantilena
Postludia
Paolo Mauri: Improvisation
Zeffirino Longhetti: Elegia
Chamber Music in Lviv
On Friday, June 23, the Lviv choir "Gloria" and the Chamber
Orchestra of the Lviv Higher Music Institute presented a concert
in the Organ Recital Hall (8 Bandera Street). The concert
included chamber works for choir a capella (Palastrina, Lasso,
Twardovsky, and Orban) and also instrumental compositions for
string orchestra (Bach, Skoryk). Counter tenor, Vasyl Slipak
(Lviv), sang an excerpt from an opera by Caccini. Ostap Shutko
and Volodymyr Khoronskij were also featured soloists. The evening
concert's climax occurred with the performance of Bach's Motet
No.6 for choir, orchestra, and organ.
The Austrailian Music Festival
Kyiv and Lviv were the hosts of The Australian Festival of
Chamber Music. Sponsored by KLM Airlines and JCU, the one day
festival (June 21, Kyiv; June 23, Lviv) featured internationally
renowned artists who presented contemporary classical chamber
works. The ensemble led by Artistic Director Theodore Kuchar
(USA), viola, included such performers as Charles Kasselman
(USA), violin; Solomia Soroka (Ukraine), violin; Michael
Holdschlager (Australia), cello; and Lamar Crawson (Great
Britain), piano. The program included the following works:
- Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Piano
- Dvorak: Piano Quartet E-flat Major op.87
- Izai: Sonata No 6 for violin solo
- Brahms: Piano Quintet F-Major op.34
Is Ukraine Ready for Virginia Woolf?
Andrij Zholdak's Ukrainian production of Edward Albee's "Who's
Afraid of Virginia Woolf" had its premieres in the month of June
in Kiev and Lviv; 33 years after its original Broadway
production. Interestingly, the play had called attention to
itself long before the advertised Lviv performances (June 14,15,
and 16th) with its ticket prices ranging from $4 to $20 - a major
investment for Ukrainians considering that the average monthly
wage is approximately $15/month (Lviv). The 2 1/2 hour play also
had a long list of sponsors which included national organizations
like the Ukrainian Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts,
the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, as well as corporate
sponsorships by Philip Morris, Kancom Telecommunication Services,
Nadra Commercial Bank, Minolta, Utel, Bank of Ukraine, and many
others. In a way, the sponsors guaranteed a high-class,
westernized production. Many who are familiar with Albee's "Who's
Afraid" may consider Zholdak's modern interpretation original and
even insightful, though the majority of Ukrainian audiences found
the play difficult to understand. The basis of this
misunderstanding may have been the following: 1) the play itself
2) the corporate sponsorship 3) the producer's poetic license or
a combination of all three.
At a time when Ukraine's population is going through a turbulent
period with social and moral decay, Albee's play is timely. The
scenes of overly abusive language, excessive drinking, physical
and psychological abuses, and the deceitful human relationships
echo Soviet Ukraine's past. Every audience member could somehow
relate to the play's brutality and human cruelty. Some voiced
their concerns and even disgust during intermission, and simply
could not believe that America could be so decadent.
Corporate sponsorship by newly established companies from the
West is a new phenomenon in Ukraine. Most major productions
during the Soviet era were sponsored by the government. However,
the Ukrainian government, barely able to support bankrupting
state corporations, presently cannot afford to fund cultural
events. As mentioned earlier, many corporations sponsored
Zholdak's production at a time when such a play would be
impossible to produce. Even the elaborate programs, made
especially for the Ukrainian premiere, were designed and printed
in Western Europe. The outside funding helped provide innovative
and futuristic stage decorations and background music.
Zholdak's interpretation of the play was the dominant feature of
the production. The stage director, having taken some liberties
in casting and time sequences, emphasized details which gave
lesser cohesion to the play's original dramatic development.
His ability to bring together Ukraine's best known actors: Bohdan
Stupka, Ada Rohovsteva, Bohdan Benyuk, Victoriya Spesivtseva
naturally added to the play's pre-performance popularity. By
Ukrainian standards, the actors were used in a very original
manner. In the first half of the play, the roles of George and
Marta were changed in that Bohdan Stupka played Marta, and Ada
Rohovsteva impersonated George. The switch had mixed effects.
George de la femme was difficult to understand because the
vibrant actress, trying to imitate the professor, spoke in her
lower voice range, which muted both articulation and volume. In
contrast, Stupka's Marta seemed very natural. The impact of the
switch in characters was so unexpected and dramatic that the
roles played by the other two actors seemed secondary and
inconsequential. If it were not for the Albee's casting
instruction and the story itself, the roles of Nick and Honey
could have been eliminated.
Zholdak's desire to include some aspect of Ukrainian culture in
the play was controversial. Instead of being recited, the final
scenes of the play were chanted by the actors. This chanting
resembled the Ukrainian Byzantine Rite Church Service, complete
with priest and choral responses. Not surprisingly, the
requiem-like interpretation generated a lot of commotion in the
500 seat theater. Almost a quarter of the audience left the
premises before the performance had ended.
In contrast to an American sixties setting, Yaroslav Nirod's set
design emphasized simplicity and empty space. The spatial Lviv
Zankovetskij Theater allowed actors to utilize the entire stage.
The set featured two large opposing white walls that led to a
large rectangular scrim in the background. Throughout the
performance, images of tree silhouettes and youthful black-white
portraits of the performing artists were projected onto the
translucent stage backdrop. The play's "rain" scene doused both
Honey and George to end the play's first half. In the second
part, the stage floor was entirely covered by a white cloth
resembling clouds.
There were many feelings about Andrij Zholdak's production of
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Some people were pleased to see
such a full-scale production of an American classic. Others felt
that the play's performance was too commercial and that its true
intent and meaning were lost in the director's interpretations.
--Antony Potoczniak, UAM.
The Ukrainian Arts Monitor is a sponsorship supported publication.
Without public support this publication would not be possible.
If your organization would like to support U.A.Monitor Project
please write to UAM@ukrainet.lviv.ua.
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