Vocal concert 15-05-2013
Нижче - чернетка для публікації в блозі Вікімедіа англійською. В основі - текст з блогу ВМУА. Правте сміливо!
Translation into Ukrainian of lyrics to renowned classical music has quite the lengthy tradition. Its early beginnings may be traced to the late 19th and throughout the 20th century: Rylsky, Lukash, Starytska-Cherniakhivska, and Borys Ten. However, not having ever been published, such translations continue to remain relatively unknown — and it is exactly for this reason that Wikimedia Ukraine aims to popularize these through the publication of scores, through the performance of the works themselves and through the release of the audio recordings of these. A first step in this direction is the publication within the World Classics in Ukrainian Project of Bortniansky's opera Le Faucon (1786), — with a Ukrainian translation by Strikha (1990).
The Wiki-Concert of May 15th included a wide range of styles and genres: songs of Schubert, Schumann, Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, Puccini and Rachmaninoff were performed in poetic translation by Yuri Otroshenko. The concert featured several contemporary works for solo voice and piano by Oksana Yevsiukova, based on poems by Tetiana Cherep and Marina Popova — and, additionally, a work by Andriy Bondarenko based on the lyrics of L. Carroll as translated by V. Korniyenko.
Among the performers were People's Artists of Ukraine: soloists Mykola Koval and Stepan Fitsych, as well as Honored Artists of Ukraine Natalia Krechko, Oksana Dondyk, and Oksana Yevsiukova. These were accompanied by Andriy Bondarenko, Andriy Diomin, and Vasyl Babych on piano, clarinet and cello, respectively. Copious applause was received from the audience; after the final Drinking Song from Verdi's opera La Traviata, audience enthusiasm prompted its encore performance.
Andriy Bondarenko, one of the concert organizers and member of Wikimedia Ukraine and the Ukrainian Composers' Union, claimed that the concert was unique: "After the Kiev Opera House rejected the Ukrainian translations in the first years of independence there was virtually no performance of classical music in our native language. Exceptions have been rare: the only opera heard in Ukrainian in the National Opera Theatre was Rossini's Barber of Seville. In 1994, Ukrainian singer Anna Kolesnyk performed songs in the Ivan Franko theater in Kyiv. Meanwhile, the results of the concert were fascinating — not only because the singers performed well, but also because the audience was able to understand what they were singing about!"
Maxim Strikha, an academician and Doctor of the Physical and Mathematical Sciences, wrote: "These days almost everyone accepts 'on faith' the assertion that opera and vocal music in general ought to be only performed in the original, as it is thus that the unity of music and lyrics is achieved — yet no one has bothered to ponder whether this is actually true. Reading what renowned composers of the past (for example, Verdi, Wagner, Shostakovich and others) wrote on this subject suggests that vocal music should be performed a language understood by the audience: it is a known fact that Verdi himself worked on the French translation of his major operas and that Wagner expessed concern that Australian audiences have a basic understanding of Lohengrin in their native English language. This was not simply a matter of philanthropy, but awareness of the importance of the textual component in opera arias, romances and songs: there is an element of falsehood in claiming that there can be unity of music with an obscure text."
Another feature of the concert was its complete recording for the distribution of video and audio on a "free license" basis: photographs and recordings made at the concert will be released on Wikimedia Commons licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, which includes the right to copy, distribute and create derivative works, provided acknowledgement is duly made and derivative works are released under the same license.
When it comes to vocal heritage, Ukrainian World Classics are the first in Ukraine to be accessed and freely used by anyone: the audio, video and photo made at this concert is stored in WikiConcert 2013 Kyiv Category in Commons.