Kossak, Vasyl

Kossak, Vasyl [Коссак, Василь], b 12 February 1886 in Chortkiv, Galicia, d 23 May 1932 in Stryi, Galicia. Actor, singer (tenor), and stage director. Joining the Ruska Besida Theater as an actor in 1904, he worked his way to director of the company (1915–18). In 1918–22 he worked with his own troupe in Kolomyia, and then with Yosyp Stadnyk’s touring theater (1924–7) and with the Starytsky theater at the People's Home in Stryi (1928–32). His repertoire included such roles as Andrii in Semen Hulak-Artemovsky’s Zaporozhian Cossack beyond the Danube, Petro in Mykola Lysenko’s Natalka from Poltava, Suleiman in Denys Sichynsky’s Roksoliana, Barinkey in Johann Strauss’s Zigeunerbaron, Jontek in Stanisław Moniuszko’s Halka, the title role in Charles Gounod’s Faust, and Stepan in Marko Kropyvnytsky’s Nevol'nyk (The Captive).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]