The jubilee parade does not occur more frequently than the planet parade. But exactly the same coincidence of star jubilees occurred on the border of millenium to the Lviv Opera and baller theater named after I.Franko. It celebrates 10 years of Independence of Ukraine, own centenary and 400 years of the opera genre exactly on the millenium border - significant jubilee after Christian calendar. The idea to celebrate all these "red" dates with dignity could seem "crazy" if it was not supported by such indisputable culture figures as Miroslav Skoryk, Tadey Eder, Miron Yusipovich, Bohdan Stelmah and ... pontificate John-Paul who before consecrating was an active theater-goer. It is not a joke and journalistic fake - the magnificent jubilee project of the Lviv opera was approved by the rulers of Greek-Catholic church, later it received support and God's blessing from the Pope.
"Moses's" premiere was planned for November. At the moment the opera is in a work. But its autonomous part - "The Prologue" - is predicted to be presented on the celebrations dedicated to the occasion of obtaining by the opera national status, which will be held in Kyiv 19-20 October.
Though the theater director Tadey Eder admits: "I cannot yet say if "the Prologue" presentation will be in Kyiv the 20th of October. Though the material for the chorus and the orchestra is done and studied, but the solo part requres lots of changes. The composer will have to meet the singers who have pretensions: the part is difficult, the diapason range is high, the problem is in high tesitura, when the singer independently of his desire will be shouting instead of singing. When the part will be corrected, we'll need some time for the studies. We cannot present in Kyiv raw work, - we are obliged by the capital scene. Moreover, we expect the President and other high officials to attend the concert ".
The theater will bring to the capital the recent stage by D. Vishili of "Nabukko" opera. It is already the third stage by the Italian director (it was preceded by the "Village honor " by Maskani and Puchchini's "Bogema"). "Nabuko" impresses not only with the orchestra coherency, soloists' voices and chorus discipline, and with drama decision. The experts consider this almost cinematographic stage absolutely incomparable to it's static Kyiv analogue. Finally, the fact that it is Lviv "Nabukko" that is considered to be the desired guest at different European music festivals speaks for itself.
- The conception of scenic stage of Franko's "Мoses" as an opera performance, - says Bohdan Stelmah, - came to me a few years ago. Probably, immediately after successful premiere of "I believe" musical. Working on libretto, I understood that I do not have any right to alter neither text, nor poem composition, but had to do certain abridgements because the genre of the work was changed. The text left after the abridgement was assigned to the heroes, a few verses are repeated - to emotionally stress certain moments.
It is not the first co-operation of Stelmah with Lviv opera. In 1984 he prepared wonderful Ukrainian libretto for Verdi's opera "Falstaf". But it was not staged because the poet was in unfavor of communist party bosses and for a few years he was silenced: his songs did not appear on radio and TV, works were not published. Stelmah was the author of new variations of opera librettos by А. Vahnyan "Kupalo " and D. Sichinskiy "Roksolana ", staged by the opera studio at Lviv conservatory, and of the original libretto for the modern musical by Y.Saenko "I believe", realized in 1993.
It was Stelmah who proposed that the music should be written by Myroslav Skoryk, without including his interpretations of certain passages of the work. The conflict arises. Though creative conflicts are not new in this environment. But the result of this conflict could be unforseen scenic quality. At least, that's the arbitrary hope of Tadey Eder:
"I do not regard this stage as a temporary project. It is not a summary, it is not a tour, - it happens once in a century! As a director of the project, I feel incredible responsibility pressure. With all my respect to Skoryk, I won't bring to Kyiv a raw thing. If everything will be all right, - Maestro himself will be conducting, to avoid reprimands that composer wrote one thins and the conductor conducted in a wrong way. Once Hachaturyan himself conducted his "Spartak" and R. Gabichvadze his "Меdea" in our theater.
Director and art director of the theate Miron Yusipovich has already "felt" the music of the "Моses": "A week ago in my office we've been listening to the music material. The composer, libretto writer, conductor, director gathered. Skoryk played himself. It was clearly work meeting to define where we are. The work moves ahead. I can not tell when will be the premiere. It's exactly that it won't be in November (as planned). We can speak of "the Prologue": I have already tried it with the orchestra and chorus. The success of the stage will much depend upon the director. The contract with Zbignev Hshanovkiy from Poland is already signed. The director's decision must be peculiar and even extraordinary. Because when it will be a traditional opera or oratory, then our opera will become esthetic failure or mediocre stage, decided with typical opera means. We need some modern approach. That does not mean avant-gardism in costumes- they are traditional- I mean the second and third plans".
The same high standards are set by Tadey Eder: "Моses " - is not the opera which will pass in Lviv 1-2 times. I have seen so many such operas! The theme of the "Моses " - is Universal, for all times and peoples. If we started this, we should realize, that it is not a common-life genre performance: killed-slaughtered-shot or loved-kissed-married. If we have the blessing of the Saint Pope, - he, definitely, understands what stands behind that. And that's why if the opera will be wrote for more 10 years, I am ready to wait... But that must be the work, for which neither Lviv opera, nor composer, nor Ukraine for the forthcoming centuries will be ashamed...
Victoria Sadova
Politics and Culture (ПІК) №35(70) 26 Sep-2 Oct 2000

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