Theatre in Ukraine

The roots of the Ukrainian national theatre are traced to Old Slave myths. Performances by "skomorokhy," by Old Rus' itinerant actors, were first mentioned in the 11th century and in the, 17th— 18th centuries they took the form of "balahan" and "vertep" itiner­ant drama and puppet shows, which stimulated the appearance and maturation of the theatrical art in Ukraine. Folk dramas appeared in the 17th century as a stage versions of literary works (usually adven­ture stories or school melodramas).

Taras Shevchenko's historical and social drama "Nazar Stodolya" strengthened the theatre's realistic principles.

Plays marked by talent and high professionalism were written by Ivan Kocherha and Y. Yanovsky, complemented by dramas of every­day life by H. Mizyun, H. Hyzylsky, etc.

In the 1950s—1980s historical themes were broached by gifted Ukrainian playwrights (Ivan Kocherha's "Yaroslqv the Wise," O. Ilchenko's "St. Petersburg Autumn"). It was then that O. Dovzhenko wrote the enthusiastically romantic play "Life in Blossom" about plant breeder T. Michurin and the tragic comedy "Cossack Descendants".

Over the past years the Ukrainian theatre has stayed on the wave crest of national revival. Among its stars are B. Stupka, B. Kozak, F. Stryhun, A. Rohovtseva, V. Zaklunna, and others.

At present, Ukraine operates 91 drama companies, including "academic theatres" in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv and Simferopol; musical drama and puppet theatres in all the 24 administrative regions; Youth Theatres in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya and Lviv; musical come­dies in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa. The Union of Theatrical Workers was founded in 1987 and its current membership approaches 6,000. Kyiv houses the State Museum of Theatrical, Musical and Cinemat­ographic Art of Ukraine.

Ukrainian ballet is known on every continent. Kyiv Ballet troupe has triumphantly toured the USA, Canada, Japan, European, South American countries. Audiences across the globe were bewitched by і the virtuoso techniques and dramatic alent of such Ukrainian balle­rinas as Valentina Kalinovska, Olena Potapova, Alla Havrylenko and Alla Lahoda. Solo dances Irayida Lukashova and Valeriy Parsegov won the Anna Pavlova and Waclaw Nijinsky international prizes.

Ukrainian ballet has old traditions dating from folk dances in Kyiv Rus' on to the music-and-dance scenes of the School Theatre.

Music in Ukraine

Over the centuries the Ukrainian people have created a singular art of music, rooted deep in the misty pre-Christian times. Folk tradi­tions have preserved to this day original ritual songs, dances and games dedicated to tillers' holidays, such as "Kolyada" (Christmas carols), "Vesna" (Spring) and "Kupalo" (St. John's Eve). The flour­ishing of Kyiv Rus' in the 10th—11th centuries was the fertile ground on which heroic epos grew and matured (ballads performed to the accompaniment of the "husli" psaltery, "skomorokhy" minstrels, and military music). Musicians are among the fresco images perpetuated on the walls of St. Sophia's Cathedral in Kyiv, evidence of the role music played in the life of Rus' princes. Chronicles dating from the 15th-17th centuries contain records of ballads and historical songs lauding the Cossacks' heroic struggle against foreign intruders. The Ukrainian folk vocal heritage boasts a multitude of lyrical, humor­ous, patriotic, satirical, drinking and children's songs and romances. "Kobza," "bandura," "sopilka" (pipe, flute), "basolya" (primitive double bass), "bubett" (tambourine), "tsymbaly" (dulcimer), violin, "kolisna lira" (wheel lyre) and "koza" (Ukrainian folk version of the bagpipe) became truly national musical instruments. In Gogol's words, songs are for Ukraine "poetry, history and one's father's grave".

Beginning in the 14th century, Ukrainian songs and dances ap­peared in print in Western European collections and in books of music for the lyre. Eventually, they found their way into the music of Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Weber, Liszt, Chopin, Dvorak — in the West, and in the East, into that of Dargomyzhski, Musorgski, Rim­ski-Korsakov, Spendiarov, Taneev and Stravinski. They were studied by the Russian Serov, the Pole Zalesski, the Czech Kuba, the Hun­garian Bartok, the Finn Kron, and others.

Professional musical culture appeared and developed following the introduction of Eastern Orthodox Christianity by Prince Volodymyr. At present, Ukraine has 6 opera houses, 3 operettas, 10 state philarmonic societies, dozens of folk choirs and song-and-dance groups, 5 higher music schools and 25 Regional Philarmonic So­cieties.

Among the Ukrainian professional performers are winners of pres­tigious international contests, Ukrainian operatic and ballet compa­nies, symphony orchestras, choirs and solo performers often appear on tours in Europe, Asia and the USA.

Speaking about Ukrainian composers we must mention K, Shy-manovski, I. Stravinski, R. Hliyer, S. Prokofiev, O. Spendiarov, and others, who were born in Ukraine, destined to make a tangible con­tribution to the cultural heritage of many countries and peoples. The key figure of the Ukrainian musical renaissance was Mykola Lysenko (1842—1912), pianist, composer, conductor and folklorist who left behind an enviable creative heritage extending to almost every gentre, including 10 operas (among them the well-known "Taras Bulba and Natalka Poltavka"). In Halychyna it was his contempo­rary, A. Vakhnyanyn (1841—1908), author of the opera "Kupalo" (''St. John's Eve," 1891), founder of the "Boyan Choral Society" (1891) and the Higher Institute of Music in Lviv (1903).

Nowadays general popularity marks such performing groups as the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, "Dymka"zad "Trem-bita" Choral Capellas, Hrigoriy Veryovka Folk Choir, Bandurist Capella, Ukrainian Folk Instrumental Orchestra, Cherkasy and Zakarpattya Folk Choirs, Bukovynian and Hutsul Song and Dance Ensembles.

Ukraine's first jazz orchestra, directed by Y. Meitus, appeared in Kharkiv (1924—1926). The first jazz club opened in Kyiv in 1962.

The recorded pop music genre is worthily represented by O. Berest, L. Bondar, T. Povahy. Creative search in national rock music started at the turn of the 1970s (Kyiv's groups "Kobza" and "Enei"). Among the groups combining the "general rock" style with the Ukrainian folk song-and-dance tradition, reflecting by means of rock the acute problems of the national present were the Brothers Hadyukin and the "Krok" (hard rock), Sister Vika (punk rock), the "BB» (folk rock).

The first venue of the national song poetry genre was Lviv's Va­riety Theatre "Ne Zhurys" ("Don't worry").

Pop singers like Sophia Rotaru, Nina Matviyenko, Vasyl Zinkevych, Ivan Popovych, Iryna Bilyk, Nadiya Shestak, Olexandr Ponomaryov, Oksana Bilozir, Mykola Mozgovyi, Alla Kudlai, etc. are known throughout Ukraine and far outside.

Music by young composers like Karmela Tsepkolenko and Volodymyr Runchak makes confident appearances on international con­cert stages.