Location: Prospekt Svobody, 28
Lviv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. S. A. Krushelnitskaya is a theater in Lvov (Ukraine). Address: Lviv, Svobody Avenue, 28.
The need for a separate building for the city
theater became especially noticeable at the end of the 19th century.
At that time, Lviv was part of Austria-Hungary, officially called
Lemberg and was the capital of a separate large Austrian province -
the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.
In 1895, a competition
was announced, in which the project of the director of the Lviv
Higher School of Art and Industry Z. Gorgolevsky won. He proposed a
bold decision for the site of the new theatre. Since the city center
by that time was densely built up, the project provided for the
blocking of the city river, Poltva, with solid concrete vaults. Z.
Gorgolevsky supervised all earthwork and construction work. The main
burden fell on the Lvov firm of engineer I. Levinsky. Construction
began in June 1897 and lasted almost three years.
The Bolshoi
City Theater (that was the name of the Opera House until 1939)
opened on October 4, 1900. Writer Henryk Sienkiewicz, composer I.
Paderevsky took part in the grand opening. That evening, the theater
showed a production of the dramatic opera "Janek" by V. Zhelensky
about the life of the inhabitants of the Carpathian Verkhovyna.
In 1934 the theater was closed due to the economic crisis. In
1939, people's gatherings of Western Ukraine were held here, which
supported the accession of Galicia and Volhynia to the Ukrainian
SSR. The theater was reopened in 1939 and was named the Lviv State
Opera House. In 1940-1941, the Lviv Opera was urgently
Ukrainianized, the Polish language fell into disuse.
In
1941-1944, almost the entire orchestra of the Lviv Opera House,
including Professor Shtriks of the Lviv State Conservatory, as well
as the conductor of the Mund Opera and other famous Jewish
musicians, were in the Yanovsky concentration camp. The Nazis forced
musicians to play during the torture and execution of prisoners. The
picture of the musicians was one of the testimonies at the Nuremberg
Trials. On the eve of the liberation of Lvov in June 1944, all 40
musicians were shot.
In 1944, on July 22, the Lviv Opera
House might not have happened. In fierce battles for Lviv, the
Germans decided to mine and blow up the building of the Lviv Opera
House. This information reached the command of the Ural Volunteer
Tank Corps. Two tanks with squads of submachine gunners under the
command of Guards. Art. technician-lieutenant Antoninov N.I., it was
ordered to break through to the theater and prevent the enemy from
carrying out his terrible plan. The building was guarded by 10-12
Nazis, who were destroyed. The crew of N.I. Antoninov shot the
demolition men and was the first to enter the theater, thereby
saving him. (See Lvovskaya Pravda of January 11, 1983). Other
participants in this feat are Private Nikolai Zalunin, Sergeant Ivan
Bokhan, Senior Sergeant Karaev, Corporal Khadoyan, Private Vsevolod
Kozorez, and others.
In 1956 he received the name of Ivan
Franko, in 1966 - the title of academic. Closed for renovation in
the late 1970s, reopened in 1984. In 1996, one of the meetings of
the presidents of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe took
place here.
In 2000, the theater celebrated its 100th
anniversary and it was decided to give the theater the name of the
famous opera singer Solomiya Krushelnytska.
On October 5,
2005, in the mirror hall of the theater in front of the workers,
President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, noting the merits of the
entire team, the high level of performance of soloists, choir,
ballet and orchestra, announced a decree on awarding the theater the
status of National.
In 2008, the theater became a member of
the Opera-Europe association.
The Lviv Opera House was built (1897-1900) according to the
project of the architect Zygmund Gorgolevsky, who independently
supervised the entire construction using Renaissance and Baroque
forms. The building is rich in sculptural decor; marble, stucco
ornaments, gilding and decorative painting predominate in the
interior design. The theater was decorated both outside and inside,
demonstrating the art of sculptors (P. Voytovich, Yu. Markovsky, A.
Popel, E. Pech, T. Baronch) and artists (T. Popel, M. Gerasimovich,
T. Rybkovsky, Z. Rozvadovsky , S. Dembitsky, S. Reyhan).
Frontage
The main entrance is arranged in the form of three
portals with arched loggias above them, separated by Corinthian
columns. The pediment is crowned with the figure "Glory" with a palm
branch, on both sides on the tips of the facade there are winged
symbolic bronze figures "The Genius of Tragedy" and "The Genius of
Music" by the sculptor Voitovich.
Concert hall
The
auditorium is built in the form of a lyre, consists of a parterre
and 3 balconies, has 44 boxes and can accommodate 1100 spectators.
The hall is painted in white with gold. The main accent of the
decoration of the balconies are the figures of Atlanteans,
coryatids, muses, geniuses, and also herms cast from plaster. The
ceiling of the auditorium is lavishly decorated. In the center there
is a round plafond with a beautiful bronze chandelier made according
to the project of Z.Gorgolevsky. Gilded molding in the form of
garlands of flowers and leaves divides the circle of the ceiling
into ten segments, in which there are paintings with allegorical
female figures. Since 1900, the burgundy color of the chairs has
traditionally been preserved. The general picture of the hall is
completed by the decorative curtain "Parnassus", created by Henryk
Semiradsky. The artist worked on it during the last years of his
life in Rome. It turned out that the customers did not have enough
money to pay the artist for the work. Semiradsky presented his
unique canvas, on which he worked for several years, to the theater.
The front curtain, framed by a wonderful border, made by the Italian
master Retrossi according to the sketch of Semiradsky himself, first
appeared in front of the auditorium on January 13, 1901. Semiradsky
died a year after the opening of the theater, and his curtain still
adorns the theater. Curtains-pictures of this type are only in La
Scala, as well as in the operas of Krakow and Lvov. Before the
viewer, the curtain is lowered only on special occasions, for
example, at premieres.
team
Lviv Opera and Ballet Theater
consists of:
symphony orchestra - about 90 musicians;
opera
soloists - over 40 vocalists;
choir - about 60 artists;
ballet
troupe - about 60 artists.
The theater's repertoire includes more
than 50 operas and ballets.
Personalities
Altenberg,
Maryan - conductor of the Lviv Opera Theater (1939-1941). Executed
by German invaders in Warsaw.
Arbit, Semyon Mikhailovich -
conductor.
Blavatsky, Vladimir Ivanovich - artistic director
(1941-1943).
Golynsky, Mikhail Teodorovich (1890-1973), opera
singer.
Grechnev, Yakov - director and chief director in
1947-1960.
Demchishin, Rostislav Petrovich - conductor of the
Lviv Opera.
Krupenko, Igor Vasilyevich - opera singer, soloist in
1963-1970.
Nevyadomsky, Stanislav - Polish composer.
Stalinsky, Oleg Nikolaevich - Honored Artist of Ukraine, leading
soloist of the theater.
Lidia Ulukhanov - theater soloist
1930-1940
Eder, Tadey Evstakhovich - General Director - Artistic
Director of the theater in 1998-2015.