Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Life and
and activity
activity of
of
M.
M. Lysenko
Lysenko
Prepared by:
Victoria Subota & Ann Shaparenko
Mykola Lysenko
In 1880, the ban on the theatre’s Ukrainian repertoire was partially lifted, and Lysenko set about creating his best work,
the opera Taras Bulba, on which he worked for 10 years. At this time he created a lyrical-fantastic opera "Drowned" based
on the novel by M. Gogol, finished the last edition of "Christmas Night", wrote a cantata in 5 parts "Rejoice, unpolished level"
on Shevchenko's themes.
M. Lysenko's choral travels in Ukraine left a big mark in the history of Ukrainian musical culture. Folk song and choral art
reached the most remote corners of our region.
Ostap Veresay & Lesya Ukrainka
In 1873 Lysenko travelled through Galicia and Serbia. He
records Polish, Czech, Moravian, Serbian, and Croatian
songs, which he will later include in the repertoire of
choral concerts. In the same year, he met the kobzar Ostap
Veresay and studied his work.
The composer's scientific activity was also fruitful. His works "Folk
Musical Instruments in Ukraine", "On the Tarban and the Music of Vidort's
Songs", "Music to the Thought of Bohdan Khmelnytsky" gained public
recognition. Lysenko also conducts performing activities, participates in
choral and chamber instrumental concerts.
The end of the XIX - beginning of the XX century. - the peak of creative
and public activity of Nikolay Vitalievich. 1903 marked the 35th
anniversary of his career. "Christmas Night" was staged in Kyiv in honour
of the anniversary, and a big concert was held in St. Petersburg.
Gripping history of Kyiv Conservatory
& Kyiv Theater Institute
For some of them in the fall of 1904 in a house on the street. Friends organized a
charity fundraiser and made a gift to the composer - bought a house. However,
Lysenko remains living in his house and a new one organizes and opens a music and
drama school. Subsequently, this school was rebuilt and reformed into the Kyiv
Conservatory and the Kyiv Theater Institute. For the first time in Ukraine, the
department of Ukrainian drama and classes of folk instruments, in particular
banduras, and music theory, worked here.
The composer took an active part in the preparation for the opening in 1903 in Poltava of a
monument to the founder of new Ukrainian literature I. Kotlyarevsky. M. Lysenko's cantata "In Eternal
Memory of Kotlyarevsky" was performed at the celebrations on the occasion of this event.
M. Lysenko constantly combined musical activity with tireless efforts in the public field. As a young
man, he collaborated with the Kyiv Hromada. Later he actively united Ukrainian artists in the Kyiv
Literary and Artistic Society, and in 1908 he became the founder and recognized leader of the
"Ukrainian Club" - an association that played an exceptional role in the formation of the nationally
conscious intelligentsia. He died shortly (November 6, 1912) after the Ukrainian Club was disbanded by
police; Mykola Lysenko's funeral turned into a powerful patriotic demonstration of Ukrainians.
Natalka Poltavka
Natalka Poltavka (English: Natalka from Poltava) is an opera in three acts by the Ukrainian
composer Mykola Lysenko, based on the play Natalka Poltavka by Ivan Kotlyarevsky, first
performed in 1889. The original version of Kotlyarevsky's play in 1819 contained several Ukrainian
folk songs which were sung at different points throughout the work. The first known musical
adaptation of the play was made by Kharkiv musician A. Barsytsky and was published in 1833.
Lysenko began to work on the opera in 1864 but put it aside, lacking experience in writing for the
opera stage. His eventual 1889 version upstaged all the previous versions of the work. Lysenko
took the original songs from the play, which were lengthened, and wrote orchestral
accompaniments to the folk songs and dances in the play. He enlarged the musical tapestry,
producing background music to some parts. The songs were transformed into arias, and an
overture and musical entracts were added which stayed true to the spirit of Kotlyarevsky's play.
Although Lysenko's version is usually categorised as an opera, it is more comparable to an
opera-comique, containing as it does long stretches of spoken dialogue. Attempts were made to
transform the work into "Grand Opera" with the addition of music by V. Iorish were not
successful. The Kyiv State Opera returned to Lysenko's original version. The opera was first
performed in Odessa (in Russian), on 12/24 November 1889.
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