Ovations after a performance or a concert are not rare with the National Opera of Ukraine: after all, music is music, opera is always opera, and Slavic emotion is common knowledge. Still, a standing ovation even before the beginning of a concert is a sign of recognition and love deserved by few in the artistic world. Before even beginning, this concert by the National Opera’s Choir, the Lev Venedyktov Choir, became a part of the history of Ukrainian music culture.
For an inexperienced listener first visiting a theater, the choir might seem only a background for the soloists’ performance. However, those loving and knowing the art of opera understand that it is the choir that lays the foundation for every performance. Its expressive sound is like a precious stone in a kaleidoscope, turning the variety of colors into a unique beautiful pattern and creating a feeling you can never confuse with anything else, an impression of true art. The chief choirmaster proved this dictum in every performance he has given in the 48 years of his work with the Kyiv Opera. The Venedyktov Choir’s style of performing is a model of deeply intellectual, refined, and emotional interpretation of every score, while the maestro’s personality is a model of profound education, professionalism, intelligence, and vivid artistry. It is due to these qualities that the choir enjoys constant success with the audience and deep respect for Lev Mykolayovych from the theater performers, his fellow musicians, and students who have graduated from the National Music Academy.
This benefit performance was held for the first time in the 135 years of the theater’s history, though the choir had many solo performances during its concert tours abroad; in part, it sang an unusual for a theater choir program a cappella. The public remembers Venedyktov Choir’s versions of Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem Mass, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s The Bells. The recent concert was marked by a premiere of Verdi’s Four Spiritual Plays. The choir became the first performer of this cycle in Ukraine, a philosophical summary of the great composer’s life and creative work. The Four Spiritual Plays create a tremendous vocal and symphonic picture united by the theme of the Passion and Virgin Mary. The composition’s stylistics were innovative for Verdi’s times, but it remains quite complicated even for a highly professional troupe. The composer combined the loftiness of polyphony characteristic of spiritual music and a theatrical expressiveness in his presentation of musical material. Rendering these compositions is something the maestro, who has performed almost all Verdi’s renowned operas, has long dreamed of. Guided by his organic perception of the composer’s style and way of musical thinking, he was able to express the philosophical deepness, extraordinary expressiveness, and subtle psychological nuances from his conductor’s stand at the National Opera. Hopefully, this composition will become a part of the choir’s repertory and will sound again for Kyiv audience.
There was one more premiere at the concert, Lev Revutsky’s Khustyna, well known to everybody dealing with Ukrainian choral music but almost unfamiliar to the broad public. “I never thought about performing Khustyna before I found its score with the author’s dedication in the theater’s library,” Mr. Venedyktov says. “I thought if Lev Mykolayovych [Revutsky] donated this score, he probably hoped that one day this composition would be performed at the theater to which he dedicated so much of his creative power.” The lyrical quality and emotional sincerity of this cantata poem was beautifully expressed by the choir and orchestra along with National Opera soloists Mariya Stefyuk and Oleksandr Diachenko. The rest of the concert became a fireworks display of opera fragments and a cappella compositions, each of which was welcomed by the audience. Among the soloists one should note young artist Maryan Talaba, a singer with a vivid vocal and artistic gift. The choir performed the famous “Prisoners’ Choir” from Nabucco as an encore. The master’s return to the conductor’s stand took place after thirty years; previously he constantly worked as a conductor for several performances in the theater’s repertory, simultaneously acting as an assistant to the chief director. Gentle technique, refined and expressive communication with the choir, orchestra, and soloists seemed to create an atmosphere of true inspiration embracing both performers and the public.
