Odesa Opera and Ballet Theater

Odesa Opera and Ballet Theater (Одеський національний академічний театр опери та балету; Odeskyi natsionalnyi akademichnyi teatr opery ta baletu). A theater established in Odesa in 1926 on the basis of an existing municipal opera theater that had been founded in 1810. Soon after its founding the Odesa Theater became one of the leading opera theaters in Ukraine, along with those in Kyiv and Kharkiv (see Kyiv Theater of Opera and Ballet and Kharkiv Theater of Opera and Ballet). Its repertoire included operas, operettas, and ballets by Ukrainian, Russian, and Western European composers. Among the works of Ukrainian composers performed by the theater are Volodymyr Femelidi’s Rozlom (The Schism, 1929), Borys Yanovsky’s Duma Chornomors’ka (Black Sea Duma, 1929), Borys Liatoshynsky’s Zolotyi obruch (The Golden Ring, 1930), Valentyn Kostenko’s Karmeliuk (1930), Oles Chyshka’s Iablunevyi polon (The Apple Tree Captivity, 1931), Mykhailo Verykivsky’s Sotnyk (The Captain), E. Yutsevych’s Kyrylo Kozhumiaka, and Kostiantyn Dankevych’s Nazar Stodolia and Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Dankevych’s Lileia (The Lily) and Mykhailo Skorulsky’s Lisova pisnia (The Forest Song) are among the ballets staged.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]