The Ukrainian Arts Monitor

Volume 2, Issue 3
19 February 1996


Briefs  Pavarotti in Ukraine
Hryhoryj Nudha Fund
Chychybabinskyj Readings
New Magazine About Cinema
"Artania"

Announce  Festival "Surmy '96"

Gallery  National Treasures Abroad
Hryhoryj Synytsya's Exhibition
Swedish Graphics in Ukraine

Stage  Youth Theater Tour
Les Kurbas Award

Literature  Lesia Ukrainka's 125th Anniversary

Music  Modest Mentsynskyj

Popular  RFI Discoveries

http://www.ukrainet.lviv.ua [ Home ]








BRIEFS


Pavarotti in Ukraine
Kyiv.  Preliminary negotiations regarding the concert performance of world opera star Luchiano Pavarotto are being held between the Roman agency "Synergy", the Kyiv City Administration, and the Italian Embassy.  The performance is scheduled to take place on August 25th of this year on the "Spivoche Pole" [The Singing Field] in the state's capital.

--Yaroslav Davydovsky, UAM.

Hryhoryj Nudha Fund
Lviv.  The Lviv Writer's Union recently hosted a festive presentation of a new fund named after prominent Ukrainian scholar, researcher, historian, and writer, Hryhoryj Nudha, who during his lifetime never received due recognition for his work.  Hryhoryj Nudha is the author of several works including "Ukrainian Song in the World", "Don't Be Afraid of Death", "The Republic of the Cossacks", "On Literary Paths", and others.

--"Moloda Halychyna".

Chychybabinskyj Readings
Kharkiv.  The Chychybabinskyj Readings took place in Kharkiv Institute of Culture.  Over 100 scholars, poets, writers, university instructors, and students participated in the meeting.  The organizers of this event was the newly established Fund named after the laureate of the USSR State Award, and former prisoner of Viatlag, poet Borys Chychybabin.

--"Uriadovyj Courier".

New Magazine About Cinema
Kyiv.  A presentation of the new magazine "Kino-Teatr" [Cinema-Theater] - the only existing Ukrainian magazine dedicated to cinematography - occured in the Hall of New Discoveries at the National Parliament Library.  The magazine's founder is the "Kyjevo-Mohylanska Academia" University.  Among its planned rubrics will be the section called "Pages in History", which will publish letters written by Oleksander Dovzhenko.

--"Kultura i Zhytia".

"Artania"
Lviv.  A presentation of the literary-arts magazine "Artania" was given in the Museum of Ethnography on February 13th.  The head editor of this new magazine is Mykola Marychevskyj, who also publishes the magazine "Obrazotvorche Mystetstvo" [The Visual Arts].

--"Moloda Halychyna".



ANNOUNCE


Festival "Surmy '96"
Rivne.  The Third International Festival of Wind Music will take place from 23-26 May, 1996.  This festival is a cultural and artistic project presented by the All-Ukrainian Music Union and its centers in the Rivne Region.
The goals of this festival are the development of the wind musical genre, the increase of artistic performance levels of wind music and performers of various wind instruments, the popularization of wind music in the context of national and patriotic up-bringing of the Ukrainian nation - especially its youth, and the promotion of better cooperation between national and international cultural organizations.
The founders of this festival is the All-Ukrainian Music Union, the Association of Promoters of Wind Music, the Rivne Oblast Division of Culture, the Rivne City Administration, and the company "Surma".

--"Kultura i Zhytia".

The festival's Directorate can be contacted through the following address: Soborna Street 34-38, Rivne 266000 Ukraine Telephone +38 (03622) 656-80, fax +38 (03622) 697-33.



GALLERY


National Treasures Abroad
During the Second World War, over 350 art works from the Lviv Art Gallery were taken to Germany by the German Occupational Army, including the painting "Autoportrait" by Rembrandt and "Portrait of a Woman" by Gossart.
Among the expropriated treasures was an album of drawings by the famous artist of the German Renaissance, Albrecht Durer, which was presented as a gift in 1823 by Henrik Lubomirskyj to the Lviv Ossolenium.  During the war, the album was in the possession of Hitler's Reich Chancellery and later, was retrieved from a salt mine near Salzburg, Austria.
At the end of last year, after a thorough journalistic investigation, the London periodical "The Arts Newspaper" published an article on the whereabouts of the 24 drawings of the "Lviv" album: "The newspaper's investigation reported that one of the world's most famous collection of drawings by Durer were dispersed under suspicious circumstances and perhaps now, the collection can become an object of international claim...The conducted investigation shows that the fate of these drawings was a transgression on the American side in the return of art works, which were confiscated by the Nazis..."
The newspaper informs that the drawings are in several national collections in London, Birmingham, Rotterdam, Ottawa, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City, New York, and also in private collections in Great Britain, Germany, Canada, and the United States.

--"Vysokyj Zamok".

Hryhoryj Synytsya's Exhibition
Kyiv.  An exhibition featuring the works by Hryhoryj Synytsya, distinguished artist-monumentalist and winner of the state award named after Taras Shevchenko, was held in the city center's "Ukrajins'kyj Dim" [Ukrainian Home].  The exhibition under the title "Ukrajina - zhytia moje" [Ukraine - my life] exhibits paintings (especially from the 1960's) which earlier were never shown in public.

--"Uriadovyj Courier".

Swedish Graphics in Ukraine
Kyiv.  An exhibition under the same name is now being shown in the Center of Contemporary Art "Brama" under the auspices of the Swedish Embassy in Ukraine and the Swedish Institute in Stockholm.  The exhibition represents many different techniques in graphic art from traditional - "dry-needle", "mezzo-tinto", lithographs on stone - to experimental.  This collection has already been expositioned in Ivano-Frankivsk, where it received high acclaim.

--"Literaturna Ukrajina".



STAGE


Youth Theater Tour
Lviv.  The Lviv Youth Theater named after Les Kurbas began its enduring American tour on February 10th.  This second tour in the United States is organized by the Union of Journalists, Sartoga International Institute of Theater, and the Drama Faculty at Columbia University.
The Lviv troupe will show three productions including: "Blahodarnyj Erodij" [The Thankful Erody] based on the original work by Hryhoryj Skovoroda, "Zabavy Dlya Fausta" [Games for Faust] adapted from Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment", and "Apochryphy" based on the dramatic works "Na Poli Krovi" [In the Field of Blood] and "Johanna, Zhinka Khusova" [Johanna, Khus's wife] by Lesia Ukrainka.  The theater's artistic director is Volodymyr Kuchynskyj.

--"Vysokyj Zamok".

Contact: Les Kurbas Street 4, Lviv 290007 Ukraine telephone +38 (0322) 742-068


Les Kurbas Award
Kyiv.  Candidates for the award named after Ukraine's famous actor and director Les Kurbas (1887-1942) have been announced. This award is presented every two years for the best work in directing, acting, script writing, or publication on the history and theory of Ukrainian theater.  The winners of the Les Kurbas Award will be announced on February 25th, the birthday of the Ukrainian reformer.
Among the pretenders for this award is actor Gennady Horshkov of the Donetsk Ukrainian Musical Dramatic Theater named after Artem (for the role of Malakhyj Stakanchyk in the play "Narodnyj Malakhyj" [The People's Malakhyj] by Mykola Kulish), the director of Yara's Group "La Mama" (New York, USA) Virlana Tkacz (for the production of plays, artistic evenings, which propagate the achievements of the Ukrainian people), and artistic director of the Dnipropetrovsk Ukrainian Theater of One Actor "Kryk" [Scream] Mykhailo Melnyk (for his significant contribution to the development of national art, exploration of new theatrical forms as a director, actor, playwright, and translator).

--"Kultura i Zhytia".

The jury asks to send responses and propositions for the selection of candidates to the following address: The Division of Theaters, Ministry of Culture and Art of Ukraine, Ivan Franko Street 19, Kyiv 252030 Ukraine



LITERATURE


Lesia Ukrainka's 125th Anniversary
Kyiv.  The committee responsible for organizing the national celebration of the 125th birthday anniversary of poet and playwright Lesia Ukrainka (Larysa Kosach-Kvitka, 1871-1913) recently held a meeting to coordinate the various festivities throughout Ukraine.  Among this year's planned events observing the jubilee include "Artistic Evenings in Volyn Region", art exhibits, theater performances, poetry readings, and research conferences, which will take place in the poet's native region Volyn.
Plays by Lesia Ukrainka will be performed in major theaters as well as plays by young playwrights depicting her life and creative work.  There will also be an all-Ukrainian competition of script readers in Kyiv and Nizhen.  Major preparations are also being made in the Crimea, where the celebration's culmination will take place in Yalta with an arts festival, "Lesyna Osin" [Lesia's Autumn].  On February 26th, the poetess's birthday, Kyiv will officially observe the playwright's anniversary as well as show performances of six of her plays.

--"Literaturna Ukrajina".



MUSIC


Modest Mentsynskyj
Kyiv.  The Ukrainian nation has contributed many superb vocalists to the opera world.  Among them is Modest Mentsynskyj (1875-1935), glorified performer of tenor roles of all Wagner operas and other "veristic" composers.  This celebrated artist also donned the honorable title of heroic tenor.
"Rada" publishers recently released a new book "Modest Mentsynskyj" by Mykhailo Holovashchenko, who is the author of several books on operatic art including "Oleksandr Myshuha" (1971) and the two volume set "Solomia Krushelnytska" (1978-79).  This original trilogy depicts the large panorama of operatic art in Europe during the last thirty years of the nineteenth century and early part of this century.  The major artists of this era were Ukrainian opera stars, who then were legends in their time.

--"Kultura i Zhytia".

Contact: Leonid Lirnychenko, Director of "Rada" Publishers Telephone +38 (044) 220-1145, 221-1519 fax 225-4024 Volodymyrska Street 42, Kyiv 252003 Ukraine



POPULAR


RFI Discoveries
Lviv.  For the first time, musicians from Ukraine - two groups "Pikkardijska Tercia" [Picardy Third] and "Okean Elsy" [Ocean of Elsa] (see UAM Volume 2, Issue 1) - will take part in the competition "RFI Discoveries: Rock'n'Pop in the East Contest". Its second year, this event is sponsored by Radio "France International", who has made its primary goal to heighten the international reputations of popular groups from Central and Eastern Europe.  Among all the participants involved, no more than twelve will be accepted to the final round.  Three laureates are to be awarded, including the media grand prix, the jury grand prix, as well as a special award from the jury. In addition to money prizes, winners of the competition will be invited to France to participate in a gala concert.

--"Moloda Halychyna".




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