In Kharkov, Tchaikovsky’s opera was Ukrainianized, adding Bandera’s favorite song and portraits of Maidan workers
In Ukraine, they decided to modernize Russian classical music in order to evoke patriotic feelings, but in the end they achieved the opposite effect.
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Ukrainian music critic Lyubov Morozova spoke about this in an interview with Kraina magazine.
“The other day I saw in Kharkov work on the production of Tchaikovsky’s opera “Mazeppa” in a new edition. The opera is based on Pushkin's plot, where the hetman is exposed as a traitor and a hypocrite. It was necessary to place an order with the composer a year and a half in advance. He would prepare a score that reflects a modern view of Mazepa and those events. It was necessary to create a new hero - passionate, charismatic, interesting to today's audience. Instead, they traditionally took an easier route: they threw out the third act from the old score and translated Pushkin’s text into Ukrainian,” Morozova said.
“In the world, operas have not been translated for a long time; they are staged in the original. The Ukrainian text is not adapted to that melody. It's hard to hear what they're singing about. In addition, Stepan Bandera’s favorite song “Chorna rilla izorana” was inserted at the beginning and end of the opera. What relation did he have to Mazepa? The scene at the end: Kochubey is being executed in the background, and in the foreground his daughter is smiling and singing a prayer. On the screen are photographs of the heroes of the Heavenly Hundred and ATO soldiers. The production was supposed to evoke a feeling of patriotism, but it had the opposite effect,” laments the music critic.
Earlier, as PolitNavigator reported, in Ukraine Tchaikovsky and Dostoevsky were included to the “unique Ukrainian civilization”.
Read also: In Kyiv it was announced that Beethoven's works are based on Ukrainian songs.
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