LYSENKO : TARAS BULBA

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 1st of August  2010  3.04 - 5.30 pm

INTRODUCTION
COMPOSER
SYNOPSIS
RECORDING
FACEBOOK!
LYSENKO: Taras Bulba, an opera in four acts
Taras Bulba............................ Taras Shtonda
Nastya.................................... Alia Pozniak
Ostap..................................... Petro Priymak
Andriy.................................... Pavlo Priymak
Voyevoda Dubneneskiy.......... Yevghen Orlov
Maryltsya............................... Svitlana Godlevska
Tatar woman.......................... Tetiana Kuzminova
Kobzar................................... Oleksandr Gourets
Tovkach................................. Vasyl Kolybabiuk
Zadorozhniy............................ Serghiy Skochelias
Koshoviy................................ Viktor Dudar
Kyrdiaha................................ Andriy Goniukov
Messenger.............................. Dmytro Gryshyn
Cossack................................. Oleksandr Boyko
Bratsky Cathedral sacristan..... Mykola Gubchuk
Polish Priest............................ Oleksandr Vostriakov
National Opera Theatre of Ukraine Chorus & Orch/
Volodymyr Kozhukhar (recorded in the National Opera Theatre of Ukraine, Kiev, by Ukraine Radio)

The Ukrainian nationalist composer Mykola Lysenko was born in 1842 and died in 1912, but he still made it onto Facebook. This opera is based on yet another story by Nikolai Gogol, Taras Bulba, rated by Ernest Hemingway as one of the ten greatest books of all time. The Czech composer Janácek produced a symphonic rhapsody on the tale, which is heard more often than Lysenko's opera; but if you live in Kiev you can see it performed every season at the opera house. There have been movies, including a Hollywood version (1962), involving Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis, with prize-winning music by Franz Waxman.

Taras Bulba is a 16th-century Cossack who has two sons, named Andriy and Ostap. Andriy goes over to the Polish intruders, for love of a woman, and Taras kills him for desertion; in the novel, Ostap and Taras are executed by the Poles, but the opera ends with them defeating the Poles.

Notice that this performance has the title role sung by a bass named Taras.