Meitus, Yulii

Meitus, Yulii [Мейтус, Юлій; Mejtus, Julij], b 28 January 1903 in Yelysavethrad, d 2 April 1997 in Kyiv. Composer. A graduate of the Kharkiv Music and Drama Institute (1931) in the class of Semen Bohatyrov, he has worked as a composer for his entire life. His works include 14 operas, most notably Perekop (1939–40) and Haidamaky (1940–1) (both composed with Vsevolod Rybalchenko and Mykhailo Tits), Abadan (composed with A. Kuliev, 1942–3), Star over the Dvina (1951–5), Stolen Happiness (1958–9), and Yaroslav the Wise (1973); five orchestral suites; choral and choral-orchestral works on Ukrainian and Turkmen folk themes; art songs to texts by Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, and others; and music for the theater (most notably, for 13 of Les Kurbas’s Berezil productions) and films. Fairly modern in style, Meitus is a notable representative of 20th-century Ukrainian music and in particular Ukrainian opera.

[This article was updated in 2011.]