The Zaporozhian Cossack Returns to Vinnytsia

Vinnytsia’s Regional Drama Theater (recently granted academic status) has revived the opera A Cossack beyond the Danube which vanished from its repertoire during WWII. It was first staged in the 1930s, and in subsequent decades several attempts were made to rehabilitate it. In recent years it was again removed from the repertoire. Svitlana Fitsailo, head of the company’s literary department, attributes this to a lack of soloists. In the new production, conservatory students made their debut as Andriy and Oksana. The opera was revived thanks to the efforts of the company’s artistic director Volodymyr Selezniov and conductor Volodymyr Poimenov, and its reappearance was welcomed most enthusiastically by regional teachers. The management and cast expect it to be a success because it is an enduring masterpiece of classical opera. A Cossack beyond the Danube is the only opera in the company’s repertoire, which also includes Imre Kalman’s operetta Die Bajadere (The Yankee Princess). In the fall season the Vinnytsia Drama Theater also staged the plays A Liar is Needed and Assol and Piaf. Another premiere, Huga Makhovinka, based on a fairy tale, will be presented to children on New Year’s Eve, reports The Day’s Myroslava SOKOLOVA.