Opera in Ukraine

The Ukrainian actress Maria Zankovetska in Mykola Lysenko's operetta "Chornomortsi" (1892); Semen Hulak-Artemovsky and a scene from his opera A Zaporozhye Cossack on the Danube (1863) portrayed on a 2011 Ukrainian stamp; Odesa Opera and Ballet Theatre; poster for the 1936 film Natalka Poltavka, adapted from Lysenko's opera of the same name

A national school of opera in Ukraine first emerged during the last third of the 19th century, and was based on the traditions of European theatre and Ukrainian folk music. The first opera by a Ukrainian composer was Maxim Berezovsky's Demofont, based on an Italian libretto, which premiered in 1773. The oldest opera in the Ukrainian musical repertoire, A Zaporozhye Cossack on the Danube by Semen Hulak-Artemovsky, was written in 1863. The composer Mykola Lysenko, the founder of Ukrainian opera, composed a number of works, including Natalka Poltavka, Taras Bulba, Nocturne, and two operas for children, Koza-dereza and Mr Kotsky.

Ukrainian opera flourished and developed after the creation of the first professional opera houses in the 1920s, with Borys Lyatoshynsky's The Golden Ring (1929) being one of the most notable works produced there during the first half of the 20th century. From 1930 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s, operatic performances and the creation of new works occurred under the dominance of Soviet socialist realism. During this period, Ukrainian opera was modelled on such works as The Young Guard by Yuliy Meitus, premiered in 1947. Ukrainian opera was able to develop once more during the Khrushchev Thaw from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. Works by Vitaly Kyreiko (Forest Song (1957)), Vitaliy Hubarenko (Love Letters (1971)), or Yevhen Stankovych's folk opera When the Fern Blooms (1979) adopted more modern themes and musical expressions that were used during the Stalinist period. Of works written during the 21st century, Moses by Myroslav Skoryk is alone in retaining its place in the local repertoire.

Ukraine has seven opera houses, which include the Taras Shevchenko National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ukraine in Kyiv, the Odesa Opera House, and the Lviv Opera House. In Ukraine, operas are staged in opera studios in the country's music conservatories and largest theatres.