Zaporozhets za Dunayem | |
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comic opera by Semen Hulak-Artemovsky | |
![]() The composer and librettist | |
Native title | Ukrainian: Запорожець за Дунаєм |
Translation | Cossack Beyond the Danube |
Librettist | Hulak-Artemovsky |
Language | Ukrainian / Russian |
Premiere |
Zaporozhets za Dunayem (Ukrainian : Запорожець за Дунаєм, translated as A Zaporozhian (Cossack) Beyond the Danube , also referred to as Cossacks in Exile) is a Ukrainian comic opera with spoken dialogue in three acts with music and libretto by the composer Semen Hulak-Artemovsky (1813–1873) about Cossacks of the Danubian Sich. The orchestration has subsequently been rewritten by composers such as Reinhold Glière and Heorhiy Maiboroda. This is one of the best-known Ukrainian comic operas depicting national themes.
It was premiered with a Russian libretto on 26 April [ O.S. 14 April] 1863, in St Petersburg (at the time the capital of the Russian Empire). However, it is now normally performed in a Ukrainian translation.
According to contemporary accounts, Hulak-Artemovsky based the libretto on a story by the historian Mykola Kostomarov. The composer wrote nearly all of libretto, although some poetic phrasings are attributed to his good friend, the journalist V. Sykevych.
The story depicts the events following the destruction of the island fortress of Zaporizhian Sich, the historic stronghold of the Ukrainian Cossacks on the Dnieper River. Although historically this destruction was ordered by the Russian Empress Catherine II in 1775, for unknown reasons the composer chose to set the action in 1772. To tell the story of the freedom-loving Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine, who had fought against the Russian Empire, Hulak-Artemovsky deliberately[ citation needed ] set the story in Turkish lands with the Cossacks fighting for the Sultan. This change of locale helped the work get past the Tsar's censors, who normally banned stories about Ukrainian Cossacks.[ citation needed ]
The orchestral score was completed in the autumn of 1862 by Konstantin Lyadov, (father of Anatoly Lyadov), who developed it under the guidance of Hulak-Artemovsky. Hulak-Artemovsky had composed the original piano score and written the libretto (in Russian), no later than 12 July of that year (as the earliest known manuscript bears that date). The libretto and score were first published in 1866 in St Petersburg, by the firm of F. Stelovsky.
In 1902, the Ukrainian composer Oleksandr Horily wrote the aria Prylyn', prylyn (Ukrainian : Пpилинь, пpилинь – "Come, come"), when arranging the comic opera for Mykola Sadovsky's theatrical troupe. The aria essentially extended the vocal range of the character Oksana, who had previously been played by mezzo-sopranos; this aria is intended for a soprano.
After 1898, the original role of Prokop Teren (Ukrainian : Пpoкoп Tepeн), a rival of Andriy for the affections of Oksana, was eliminated (although in Moscow, the role was performed up until 1915).
Role | Voice type | Premiere cast 26 April 1863 |
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Ivan Karas, a Zaporozhian Cossack, aged 45–50 | bass | Semen Hulak-Artemovsky |
Odarka, aged 35, wife of Karas | soprano | |
Andriy, a young Zaporozhian Cossack | tenor | |
Oksana, an orphan maiden, raised by Karas and Odarka | soprano (originally mezzo-soprano) | Darya Leonova |
The Sultan, aged 30 | baritone | |
Selikh-Aha, a Turkish lord | tenor | |
Ibrahim-Ali, an Imam | bass | |
Hasan, a servant | ||
The story is based on a historical event: when the Zaporizhian Sich was overwhelmed by the Russian army, the Zaporizhian Cossacks and their families headed across the Danube River to the apparently safe haven of the Ottoman Empire (this area is now part of Romania) and established the Danube Sich (see Zaporozhian Host: Russian rule).
The comedy arises from the efforts made by a Cossack clan to adjust to their new home, and from the eccentric behaviour of an amorous Turkish Sultan. The plot revolves around a chance encounter between Ivan Karas, an old Dnieper Cossack and the Turkish Sultan travelling incognito, resulting in permission for all the "Cossacks beyond the Danube" to resettle on Imperial Russian land, back in Ukraine.
Zaporozhets za Dunayem (A Cossack Beyond the Danube)
Zaporozhets Za Dunayem also known as Cossacks Beyond the Danube 1938-Ukraine/USSR-Costume Adventure/Film-Opera
Produced in Ukraine by a home-grown production staff, this comic opera was released in English-speaking countries as Cossacks Beyond the Danube. Distributor: Amkino; Running Time: 73 Minutes; Starring: Stepan Shkurat; Directed by: Ivan Kavaleridze
Ukrainian music covers diverse and multiple component elements of the music that is found in the Western and Eastern musical civilization. It also has a very strong indigenous Slavic and Christian uniqueness whose elements were used among the areas that surround modern Ukraine.
The Zaporozhian Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossack Army, Zaporozhian Host, or simply Zaporozhians were Cossacks who lived beyond the Dnieper Rapids. Along with Registered Cossacks and Sloboda Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossacks played an important role in the history of Ukraine and the ethnogenesis of Ukrainians.
The Zaporozhian Sich was a semi-autonomous polity and proto-state of Cossacks that existed between the 16th to 18th centuries, including as an autonomous stratocratic state within the Cossack Hetmanate for over a hundred years, centred around the region now home to the Kakhovka Reservoir and spanning the lower Dnieper river in Ukraine. In different periods the area came under the sovereignty of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Ottoman Empire, the Tsardom of Russia, and the Russian Empire.
A sich, was an administrative and military centre of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. The word sich derives from the Ukrainian verb сікти siktý, "to chop" – with the implication of clearing a forest for an encampment or of building a fortification with the trees that have been chopped down.
Hopak is a Ukrainian folk dance originating as a male dance among the Zaporozhian Cossacks, but later danced by couples, male soloists, and mixed groups of dancers. It is performed most often as a solitary concert dance by amateur and professional Ukrainian dance ensembles, as well as other performers of folk dances. It has also been incorporated into larger artistic opuses such as operas, ballets and theatre.
Semen Stepanovych Hulak-Artemovsky, was an opera composer, baritone, actor, dramatist and pioneer of Ukrainian theatre who worked in Imperial Russia.
Kish otaman was a chief officer of the Kish of the Zaporozhian Host in the 16th through 18th centuries.
Khortytsia is the largest island on the Dnieper River, and is 12.5 km (7.77 mi) long and up to 2.5 km (1.55 mi) wide. The island forms part of the Khortytsia National Reserve. This historic site is located within the city limits of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.
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Ivan Dmytrovych Sirko was a Zaporozhian Cossack military leader, Koshovyi Otaman of the Zaporozhian Host and putative co-author of the famous semi-legendary Cossack letter to the Ottoman sultan that inspired the major painting Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks by the 19th-century artist Ilya Repin.
The Danubian Sich was an organization of the part of former Zaporozhian Cossacks who settled in the territory of the Ottoman Empire after their previous host was disbanded and the Zaporozhian Sich was destroyed in 1775.
Adrian Kashchenko was a well-known Ukrainian writer, historian of Zaporozhian Cossacks.
Antin Holovaty or Anton Golovaty ; between 1732 and 1744 – January 28, 1797 was a prominent Zaporozhian Cossack leader who after the Zaporozhian Sich's destruction was a key figure in the formation of the Black Sea Cossack Host and their later resettlement to the Kuban Region of Russia.
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