Lytvynenko-Volgemut, Mariia

Lytvynenko-Volgemut, Mariia [Литвиненко-Вольґемут, Марія], b 13 February 1892 in Kyiv, d 3 April 1966 in Kyiv. Opera singer (dramatic soprano). In 1912–14 she performed in Sadovsky's Theater and then was a soloist at the Saint Petersburg Theater of Musical Drama. She returned to Ukraine in 1917, performed in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Vinnytsia, and was a soloist at Muzychna Drama (1919), Kharkiv Theater of Opera and Ballet (1923–34), and Kyiv Theater of Opera and Ballet (1934–51) operas. Lytvynenko-Volgemut created many classical stage parts in Ukrainian opera—Odarka in Semen Hulak-Artemovsky’s Zaporozhian Cossack beyond the Danube and Natalka and Terpelykha in Natalka from Poltava, the mother in Mykola Lysenko’s Taras Bulba, Roksoliana in Denys Sichynsky’s Roksoliana, Oksana in Anatol Vakhnianyn’s Kupalo, Varvara in Kostiantyn Dankevych’s Bohdan Khmelnytsky, and Hanna in Mykhailo Verykivsky’s Naimychka (The Hired Girl)—and in classical opera—Yaroslavna in Aleksandr Borodin’s Prince Igor, Lisa in Peter Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, and the name-roles in Stanisław Moniuszko’s Halka, Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, and Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca. From 1946 Lytvynenko-Volgemut was a professor at the Kyiv Conservatory.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]