Volodymyr Hryshko to demonstrate the new face of opera; a month of French culture to take place in the capital.
Volodymyr Hryshko is considered to be among the world’s most prominent opera singers, along wiith opera legends such as Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti. After having performed on stage with the Spanish opera singer Montserrat Kaballe in Ukraine last year, Hryshko has become one those few opera singers who have been raised to the status of a real celebrity – known not only to the fans of classical music, but to the majority of the population. After such huge recognition, Hryshko is moving forward to present a new project, “The Face of the New Opera,” which he also directed. What is most interesting about the project is the fact that the “new opera” is promised to be an innovative experiment. The program includes known pieces of classical opera boldly performed in an original way. Such experimenting with music and singing styles, however, is not new to Hryshko, who took part in an experimental American project called “Rock Tenor.” Yet for Ukraine, his newest opera performance remains extremely uncommon. During the performance, Hryshko will be joined by his students Vyktor Melnyk and Anna Danylyuk, and accompanied by a troupe of contemporary ballet dancers. All this will be framed with a laser show and other stunning effects. Hryshko has remarked that the main goal of his newest venture is to attract more people to the opera, and to make the genre itself more popular and fashionable among the general population. The artists have already visited several Ukrainian cities, including Lviv, Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Kharkiv. The final performance is to be performed in Kyiv. If you don’t have a chance to see the performance in person, it will also be shown on TV.
National Opera of Ukraine (50 Volodymyrska, 234-7165). March 31 at 7 p.m. Tickets from Hr 70 to Hr 200
The annual French culture festival called “French Spring,” organized by Ukraine’s French embassy, is set to open April 1 and will last for a month. The festival begins at 8 p.m. with a bright fireworks show, which will take place at Sofiyivska plosha. The evening is sure to be sparkling, since the organizers, the art group Carabosse, which has organized similar events in Europe, Australia and America, promise to present Kyiv’s audience with a unique event. The main attraction of the evening will be numerous fire installations – flowers, pyramids and others, that are going to illuminate the whole square. The show will be followed by other cultural events of the French Spring, taking place throughout April. The schedule will include various exhibitions: photos by Denise Colomb (April 12-30) and Nagel Dickinson (April 5-29) and paintings by Patricia le Berre (April 6 – May 11). A retrospective of films by Tony Gatlif, who received the Best Director award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for the film “Exils,” will take place from April 4 to 8. The pre-premiers of new French movies, as well as shorts included in “The Long Night of Short Meter,” will be shown April 12 to 17. To make sure that everyone gets to attend the shows (so that what happened last year, when there weren’t enough screenings, doesn’t happen again), “The Long Night of Short Meter” will take place on different nights, April 20-21. All the movies are going to be shown in their original with live simultaneous translation or subtitles. There will also be a new, experimental interpretation of “Hamlet” (April 17) shown, which will, of course, be performed in French with subtitles. The French music scene will be represented by “Prisca,” a French band playing rock with Slavic elements April 26, the gipsy fusion of Rona Hartner April 5, and a concert of classical French music by the Ukrainian National Philarmonic orchestra April 13. The event will also include contemporary and hip-hop dancing April 11, and the presentations of Ukrainian translations of French books April 2 and 25, accompanied by meetings with the writers and translators. Read more on the French Spring events in the upcoming issues of the Post.
For details, contact the French Cultural Centre (104 Gorkogo, 529-4157) or go to www.ifu.com.ua.
