Muzychna Drama

Muzychna Drama (Музична Драма; Musical Drama). The first Ukrainian opera theater. It was established in Kyiv in 1919 by the All-Ukrainian Music Committee (headed by L. Sobinov) and the All-Ukrainian Theater Committee (headed by K. Mardzhanishvili) with the active support of Stepan Bondarchuk, Mykhailo Donets, S. Butovsky, and Les Kurbas. Its chief conductor was Yakiv Stepovy; chief opera director, M. Bonch-Tomashevsky; chief designer, Anatol Petrytsky; and chief ballet master, Mikhail Mordkin. Kurbas and Valentyn Haievsky worked at the theater as directors, Oleksander Khvostenko-Khvostov as theatrical scenery designer, and L. Sobinov, Mariia Lytvynenko-Volgemut, Olena Petliash-Barilotti, and Platon Tsesevych as soloists. The theater prepared Mykola Lysenko's Utoplena (The Drowned Maiden), Hutel's Aziade, Stanisław Moniuszko's Halka, and Lysenko's Taras Bulba, but performed only the first two operas before Kyiv was invaded by Anton Denikin's army and the theater was dissolved.

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