Maksym Rylskyi and the Opera Ukrainization

Author

Strikha Maksym

a Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, a professor, a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Higher School of Ukraine and Shevchenko Scientific Society, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine M. Rylskyi Prize laureate

Maksym Rylskyi and the Opera Ukrainization

Abstract

Rylskyi figure as the libretto texts translator for the Kyiv opera, after its ukrainization in 1926, is investigated in the article for the first time. This analysis is carried out on the background of a wide panorama of the tendencies of world opera execution on one hand and difficult, often tragic social-political processes, which have happened in the that time Soviet Ukraine from the other side. An attempt to ascertain the date of opera translations by Maksym Rylskyi is made with the use of a large number of archival and literary sources. The facts, when the poet’s signature is put in the theatre playbills under the texts, which have really belonged to the other authors (the persons subjected to repressions or emigration) with the purpose to save their works for Ukrainian stage, are analyzed apart. The creative manner of M. Rylskyi as opera translator is reconstructed. It is shown, that the translation of texts for opera has been distinctly the nation-making project for Maksym Rylskyi. It is aimed at the rise of social status of Ukrainian language and Ukrainian culture. The opportunities for this part of the poet creative heritage actualization nowadays are analyzed.

Keywords

opera, opera libretto, librettology, literary translation, artistic translation, the translation of vocal works, M. Rylskyi, L. Starytska-Cherniakhivska, M. Voronyi, O. Varavva, D. Revutskyi, National Opera of Ukraine.

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