Performing on tour

The creative reputation of the Kiev opera was always very high. The fact, that in 1920 - 1930s of the 20th century its artists, singers and conductors went on tour to many countries of the world, in particular, to Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Romania rather frequently, testifies to it.

In the summer of 1935 the actors of the Kiev ballet participated in the International festival of folklore dance in London and had won the highest award. They were, actually, last pre-war performances of the Ukrainian artists, for soon under a Stalin's order the "iron curtain", which had blocked any contacts of the Soviet people with the Occident, had dropped. International concert tours of the leading singers of the Kiev opera had begun gradually to revive only after termination of the Second World War. In 1945 - 1950 they had visited with the concert programs the USA, England, France, and China. In 1960 the opportunity of the all theatrical collective's tour with performances had appeared: in June, 1963 to Yugoslavia, where the operas A Zaporozhian Cossack Beyond the Danube (S.Hulak-Artemovsky), Mazeppa (P.Tchaikovsky) and ballet Don Quichotte (L.Minkus) were shown.

It is possible to consider the triumphal performance of the ballet troupe in Paris (1964) as a creative break-through of the theatre into the Europe. The collective had shown three performances: L.Minkus' Paquita, P.Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini, S.Prokofiev's Second Lieutenant Kizhe, and a concert program, which had gathered the overcrowded concert auditoriums. The soloists of the ballet Iraida Lukashova and Valeriy Parsegov had won the highest awards of the Grand Prix of the festival and the prizes of Anna Pavlova and Waslaw Nijinsky. The Kiev ballet had received the Gold star - the highest award of the French Academy of Dance.

In 1960s the ballet collective had visited Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Italy (1964), Monaco, Belgium (1965), Romania (1966), France (1967), Hungary (1969). At those years the touring ballet repertoire included compositions of the classical and modern choreography: P.Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty, A.Adan's Giselle, L.Minkus' Don Quichotte, B.Asafiev's The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, F.Yarullin's Shurale, A.Melikov's The Legend of Love, M.Skorulsky's Forest Song. The foreign audience was made familiar with the skill of the distinguished artists of the Ukrainian ballet Valentyna Kalynovska, Olena Potapova, Alla Havrylenko, Iraida Lukashova, Alla Lahoda, Eleonora Steblyak, Natalya Rudenko, Mykola Apukhtin, Valeriy Parsegov, Veanir Kruglov, Fiodor Baklan, Robert Kliavin, Gennady Baukin, Alfred Novychonok and others.

In 1970 the performances of the theatre had passed in Bulgaria with the great success. Within the framework of the festival "The Sofia musical weeks", the audience was made familiar with performances Zaporozhets za Dunayem (A Zaporozhian Cossack Beyond the Danube) by S.Hulak-Artemovsky, Milana by P.Maiboroda, Lucia di Lammermoor by G.Donizetti, and Otello by G.Verdi, in which the leading soloists of the opera Bela Rudenko, Yevheniya Miroshnychenko, Vera Liubymova, Klavdiya Radchenko, Valentyna Reka, Gizella Tsipola, Yevdokiya Kolesnyk, Dmytro Hnatyuk, Andriy Kykot, Vasyl Tretyak, Sergiy Kazak, Volodymyr Tymokhin had acted.
In a worthy manner the Kiev ballet represented the Ukrainian choreographic art in the next decades also. There were shown M.Skorulsky's Forest Song, L.Minkus' Don Quichotte, P.Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker in Egypt, Portugal, and Japan. The foreign fans of ballet applauded to the mastery of Alla Havrylenko, Tetyana Tayakina, Lyudmyla Smorgachova, Raisa Khylko, Larysa Shatylova, Valeriy Kovtun, Vadym Fedotov, Mykola Pryadchenko and others.

They were beginning to invite more often the collective of the theatre at the prestigious musical festivals in Romania (1977), Spain (1979), and Germany (1977, 1979).

In 1980s the Kyiv ballet had performed in India, countries of Latin America, on Philippines, in New Zealand, Syria, Cuba, Spain, France, visited three times Japan.

And in 1980s operatic troupe went actively on tour. In 1981 the M.Musorgsky's opera Khovanshchina was shown in Nice (France), and in one year the Kyiv opera troupe was invited to Wiesbaden at the international musical festival, where the Kyiv's interpretations of D.Shostakovich's Yekaterina Izmaylova, G.Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor sounded. Presentation of M.Lysenko's opera Taras Bulba was the real opening for the fans of music, which had shown the greatness and force of the Ukrainian opera classics.

In 1987 during the tours of the theatre in Yugoslavia in Belgrade and Zagreb the operas Yekaterina Izmaylova by D.Shostakovich, Boris Godunov by M.Musorgsky, ballets Romeo and Juliet by S.Prokofiev, Swan Lake by P.Tchaikovsky were shown.

In 1991 on the geographical map of the Europe the sovereign and independent Ukraine had appeared. A qualitatively new page of the creative biography was beginning in history of the theatre; it was connected with an active integration of the Kyiv operatic-ballet collective into the European cultural space.

The large role in it the known German firm "Landgraff" has played, which already 10 years has been carrying out the annual spring tours of the Kyiv troupe in Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, Denmark, where the collective has shown the best performances of its repertoire - M.Musorgsky's Boris Godunov, Khovanshchina, P.Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa, Eugene Onegin, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, A.Borodin's Prince Igor, G.Verdi's Requiem, S.Prokofiev's ballets Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella.

In the beginning of 1992 the Kyiv operatic-ballet troupes played on tour in Paris. Kyivers had shown on Palace of Congresses' stage five performances - M.Musorgsky's Khovanshchina, P.Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Ch.Leowenskjoeuld's La Sylphide. The performance of the collective had caused a wide resonance in Europe and had made the theatrical season in France, - the "Ukrainian" according to a press' definition.

The same year the troupe had acted once again in France and Germany, having shown D.Shostakovich's Yekaterina Izmaylova, P.Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin operas and S.Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet. In the autumn of the same year the symphonic orchestra of the National opera of Ukraine had taken part in the festival "Warsaw autumn".

In June 1993, the Kyiv opera troupe participated in the 55th International musical festival in Strasbourg (France), where had presented the common Ukrainian-German-French staging of G.Verdi's opera Nabucco, and Requiem (Verdi) that was performed at the famous Strasbourg's Cathedral.

The West-European countries - France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Denmark - continued to become acquainted with achievements of the Kyiv opera during the next years too. To performances, already shown during abroad tours, there were added unfamiliar to a wide musical society compositions - S.Rachmaninov's vocal-symphonic poem The Bells, S.Prokofiev's cantata Alexander Nevsky, D.Shostakovich's Execution of Stephan Razin. In the autumn of 1994 the opera troupe had acted at the 43-d International musical festival in Santander (Spain), and the next year at the 28th Opera festival in Las Palmas (Canary Islands). The tour baton was taken by the ballet, which had gone to Japan again with P.Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. In 1995 the Kyiv ballet made its debut in the United States of America, where at the festival in Spoletto had shown P.Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and M.Skorulsky's Forest song. The American ballet critics had marked the advantage of the Kyiv ballet in comparison with the collectives of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres.

In 1996 the Kyiv opera troupe has taken part in the XLIV festival "The Opera Friends" in La Coruna (Spain), where had presented M.Musorgsky's opera Boris Godunov and Verdi's Requiem, had acted with opera Boris Godunov at the III Bydgoszch festival in Poland, and also at the operatic-ballet festival "BudaFest" in Hungary. In 1997 the opera's soloists, chorus and orchestra had visited Austria and Germany, where with grandiose success performed M.Musorgsky's opera Boris Godunov, G.Verdi's opera Nabucco and D.Shostakovich's Execution of Stephan Razin.

The ballet troupe had opened with Swan Lake a theatrical season of the renovated Lope de Vega's theatre in Madrid.

In 1998 there were traditional spring performances in Germany and Switzerland, where the theatre had shown operas Boris Godunov by M.Musorgsky, Prince Igor by А.Borodin, Herold's ballet Futile Precautions.

In the program there were also included G.Verdi's Requiem and D.Shostakovich's cantata Execution of Stepan Razin. In the summer the ballet troupe had visited Japan the eighth time with L.Minkus' Don Quixotte, P.Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and also with the common Ukrainian-Japanese modernistic production in "buto" style of the ballet Wings of Darkness.

In the same year the ballet troupe was invited again to act on the Lope de Vega's theatre stage in Madrid. P.Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty in Kyivers' performing was recognized "as the real historical event, the best performance, which was seen by Spain for the last 20 years."

The 1999 began with large tour of the Europe (Germany, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, France).
The opera troupe had presented D.Shostakovich's Yekaterina Izmaylova, G.Verdi's Aida and Requiem, the Ludwig van Beethoven's First and Ninth symphonies, and the ballet troupe - the ballet Carmen-Suite (music by Bizet - R.Shchedrin), I.Stravinsky's Fairy's Kiss and the premiere of L.Delibes' ballet Coppelia. There were the performances of the Opera's soloists, orchestra and chorus at the international festival "Brazilian Mozarteum".

In February - March, 2000 the theatre troupe played on the traditional tours in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, which finished in the French city Avignon, where the leading musical collective from Ukraine for the first time had acted at the festival, known in the world. The first year of the third millennium began for the National opera of Ukraine with tours in France, Switzerland, Denmark and Germany. The main ornament of the tours became the premiere of Ch.Gounod's opera Romeo et Juliette, which subsequently with grandiose success was shown at the festival in Budapest (Hungary).