“Musical Ukraine” published Tetiana Shvachko’s book about the le-gendary opera singer Yevhenia Miroshnychenko (in the “Library of Shevchenko Committee” series) – it is a sincere and touching document of love to the mistress of Kyiv stage and an outstanding teacher of vocal, and praises or officialism did not touch a single of its pages.
Each performance of Yevhenia Miroshnychenko was perceived as a long-awaited return of the legend. Among the students and friends she was called simply Zhenia. She was surrounded by a special love – sincere and ingenuous the same way as was Mrs. Yevhenia herself – uncompromising and devoted to the opera art. The students gladly told how Professor Miroshnychenko fed them, taught them, helped them on in life and even lodged them in her Kyiv apartment (in Pushkinska street, then in Tereshchenkivska street and near Yaroslaviv Val).
Many admirers of operatic art remember her Lucia. Both the one she sang in her youth and the last performance. This complex opera by Donizetti (Lucia di Lammermoor) was staged in Kyiv by Iryna Molostova only for the sake of Miroshnychenko. Among the singer’s last performances are Marfa in The Tsar’s Bride by Rimsky-Korsakov and Musetta in La Boheme by Puccini. And some of our contemporaries were lucky enough to hear her even in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, in the Queen of the Night’s part...
The book Yevhenia Miroshnychenko is luxuriously illustrated.
Numerous photographs that can be found on its pages are a distinct and very significant advantage of the reviewed publication. Tetiana Shvachko did not limit herself to recounting the long-known truths, which could serve only as symbolic text addition to the illustrations. Because the photo album with commentaries dedicated to Mrs. Yevhenia would also have the right to exist and would be in demand. Shvachko’s book is the result of her hard work as a researcher and a journalist. The readers as if hear Mrs. Yevhenia’s voice from the pages of this publication. Her stories that she never told in interviews. The singer’s direct speech is very tactfully supplemented with explanations, commentaries and extensive digressions that help the reader to better understand what or who the book’s main character is speaking about. If the singer mentions a fact or a name, not very well-known to the contemporaries, the author takes the floor and supplements the story with exactly what the reader needs. Tetiana Shvachko convincingly portrays the person, avoiding subjective memoirs. There are no author’s attempts to emphasize her friendship with the singer or the unique role the latter played in her life. Though that is what the content of such books is usually built on. However, in the end it becomes clear to the reader that there was indeed the most sincere human friendship between the author and the heroine. The more valuable it looks when not being put up for show. And, consequently, the reader trusts the author and gratefully travels with her an immense journey through time – from the 1930s to the April morning of 2009, when Ukraine and the whole world learned that Miroshnychenko had passed to Eternity.
The book features extracts of the National Opera of Ukraine chronicles. It also includes reviews of many operatic parts, performed by Miroshnychenko. This is another, the professional and musicological aspect of the book, which will still be of interest to the mass reader. The book is provided with a detailed bibliography, phono-graphy and a list of the singer’s repertoire.
Let us recall that Miroshnychenko’s teaching career lasted for 29 years. This is a special page in her biography, which should be told in another publication. But who can say what was Mrs. Yevhenia’s greatest merit? For us, she still remains a mistress of the operatic stage. And the new book will help us all to gratefully commemorate the unforgettable Zhenia.
