Osypovycheva, Antonyna

Osypovycheva, Antonyna [Осиповичева, Антонина; Osypovyčeva] (née Skřivan; stage name: Tanska), b 5 May 1855 in Prague, Bohemia, d 22 November 1926 in Lviv. Actress and singer (soprano) of Czech origin. She began her career in the Polish touring troupes of J. Piasecka (1877) and W. Antoniewski (1894–5) and then became a leading actress in the Ruska Besida Theater (1882–1914), the Theater of the Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (1915), Ternopilski Teatralni Vechory (1916–17), and the Chernivtsi Ukrainian Theater (1918–19). With an extensive repertoire of earlier heroic roles and later character roles, Osypovycheva performed well in drama, comedy, and operettas. Her roles included Vustia in Mykhailo Starytsky's Oi ne khody, Hrytsiu ... (Don't Go to Parties, Hryts!), Hetman Petro Doroshenko's mother in Vasyl Pachovsky's Sontse Ruïny (Sun of the Ruin), and Czipra in Johann Strauss's Der Zigeunerbaron.

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