Roger Cohen, Paris Bureau Chief of the New York Times, reported that the Odesa Opera reopened for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine, “asserting civilization against the barbarism unleashed from Moscow.” Odesa is Ukraine’s third-largest city, a major seaport located in the southwest part of the country.
The opera house opened in 1887 and was most recently renovated in 2007. It replaced a structure destroyed by fire that had opened in 1810. The horseshoe-shaped hall has excellent acoustics.
Before the performance, concertgoers were instructed on seeking shelter, should sirens sound during the performance.
The opera’s chief conductor, Viacheslav Chernukho-Volich, led the performance, which opened with Ukraine’s national anthem, and included selections from Romeo and Juliet, Tosca, and Turandot as well as music by twentieth-century Odesa-born composer Kostiantyn Dankevych.
The opera received permission from the military to stage the performance, but the entire country remains within reach of Russian missiles, and the theater was only one-third full because of security restrictions. Conductor Chernukho-Volich observed, “Could Mr. Putin strike central Odesa? ‘Anyone capable of Bucha, of Mariupol, of what is happening down the road in Mykolaiv, is capable of anything,’ he said. ‘That is what we have learned.’”
Odesa’s mayor, Gennadiy Trukhanov, explained, “It is important to show that Odesa is alive, that Ukraine is alive, that we want to live and create, while the way of the Russian occupiers is killing and death.”
PHOTO CREDITS: Alex Levitsky & Dmitry Shamatazhi, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Odesa Opera House Reopens, Defying Putin’s Barbarism (New York Times)