Anna Starushkevych, a UK-based mezzo-soprano, is putting on her own song-and-dance work in war-torn Ukraine. Here’s is her unmediated account of today’s mid-war reality, published first on slippedisc.com:
Hello from Ivano-Frankivsk — a beautiful city in western Ukraine. It feels peaceful here. People are often surprised to hear that. Ukraine is a big country, and the city of Ivano-Frankivsk is far from the eastern front. Still, the tragedy of war reaches the city from time to time when Ukrainian air defence misses a missile (often there are simply too many to destroy them all). The war also keeps the city in its grip on a daily basis, as it’s hard to find a family here without a loved one at the front, missing, wounded, or fallen.
Physically, though, it is safe(r) here, as the city’s location allows for more time to react to incoming flying threats. Kharkiv, Odesa, and Chernihiv don’t have this luxury of time — quite often the air raid sirens there start only after the city has already been hit.
So here I am in this safe(r) place, sitting at a lovely outdoor café in the middle of Ivano-Frankivsk. The weather is just wonderful, and there is this anxious peacefulness in the air. To my right, I can see the city’s Philharmonic Hall, built in 1891 — during the time when Ukraine’s western lands were under Polish occupation — as a small opera theatre named after the great Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko.
It is in this place — which still looks very much the same — that I will have the privilege of directing and performing the lead role(s) in a new operatic song cycle, Penelope. Seven Ways To Wait, by Kristina Arakelyan (an outstanding composer and my friend), to a libretto by the soul-reaching Helen Eastman.
The piano version of the operatic work was premiered in London in 2022, where I performed as Penelope and co-directed the production; we are now working towards the world premiere of our Penelope, which will take place on 22 August here at the Ivano-Frankivsk Philharmonic Hall.
It is a great honour for me to be working with Ukrainian musicians who continue to create and perform in spite of the harsh reality of war. The lovely lady helping to create costumes for the production has been caring for her wounded son for more than a year. He is gradually recovering from a life-threatening injury sustained in one of the hot spots at the front. I am deeply humbled by people like her.
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