Lviv celebrates independence with concerts, speeches and carnival (09/08/96)

Lviv celebrates independence with concerts, speeches and carnival

by Andrij Wynnyckyj

LVIV - As a summer monsoon drowned the capital of western Ukraine and most of western Ukraine besides, the jubilee concert kicking off this city's celebrations of the fifth anniversary of Ukrainian independence began on time at the stately Lviv Opera Theater on August 22.

On time? Indeed, and doubly surprising it was, considering that this pomp and circumstance had been moved back from August 24 to August 23, and then to the evening it actually took place.

To open proceedings, Lviv Oblast Council and Administration Chairman Mykola Horyn addressed the audience that included an ecumenical collection of the region's major religious and political hierarchs. In his speech, Mr. Horyn stressed the pivotal role Halychyna and Volhynia have played throughout history in defining Ukrainian identity and statehood, and particularly in Ukraine's orientation toward Europe.

Mr. Horyn paid tribute to those who laid down their lives in distant and more recent years on the path to Ukrainian independence, and to those whose protests and steadfastness in the late 1980s and up until 1991 made the transition from enslavement to freedom seem inevitable. He also singled out "our countrymen from the diaspora" who "developed and raised to a higher plane the Ukrainian ideal, and who tempered the Ukrainian character."

Then, as people winced into the glare of television lights flooding the hall, the concert began with a performance of Yevhen Sadovsky's "Voskresla Moya Ukraina" (My Ukraine Has Resurrected) by a combined choir that brought together the singers of the Homin, Boyan, Antei, Yevshan and Blahovist ensembles.

Both the size of the choir and the sound of these voices threatened to overwhelm the humid hall, particularly because of the loud stirring repertoire chosen for the occasion. Thus, the interludes provided by the Virtuozy Lvova (Virtuosos of Lviv) chamber orchestra were welcome, and the pieces by Antonio Vivaldi and Myroslav Skoryk they played were like breaths of fresh air.

The concert also included some excellently performed selections of Ukrainian liturgical choral music, such as Andriy Hnatyshyn's "Viruyu" (Credo) and "Bohorodytse Divo" (Blessed Virgin Mother of God), Maksym Berezovsky's "Raduytesia Pravedni" (Rejoice, Ye Righteous) and Ihor Sonevytsky's "Pid Tvoyu Mylist" (To You, O Protectress).

On a sour note, the tickets to the concert were printed on Soviet-style gossamer semi-gauze, and the top left corner of each read: "Ministerstvo Kultury Ukr. SRSR" (Ministry of Culture of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic). Also, the concert was punctuated by overdone recitations of hyper-patriotic verse, which, one hopes, will someday no longer be necessary.

The public singing of Ivan Franko's cheerfully chauvinistic "Ne Pora" (It's No Longer That Time) can always bring anxious moments, but the version sung on this occasion was sanitized in the interests of ethnic harmony, so several people who stayed in their seats for the first stanza got up to join the patriotic denizens who'd leapt from their seats at the first note.

Perhaps it was the atmosphere of celebration, or maybe Ukrainians have more national anthems than this writer was aware of, but it seemed that the audience was on its feet for every second or third selection the choir sang.

In accordance with tradition, the final piece was Mykola Lysenko's "Molytva za Ukrainu" (Prayer for Ukraine, a.k.a. "Bozhe Velykyi Yedynyi") for which it was no surprise to stand.

August 24 celebrations

The official program on Independence Day itself began at noon, under a sun the city hadn't seen for at least five days, on Prospekt Svobody (Freedom Prospect).

A crowd of about 50,000 gathered to hear an Akafist (Prayer of Thanks) to the Mother of God, and a brief oration by Mykhailo Kosiv, a people's deputy and member of the Parliament's Presidium, and milled about constantly throughout the surprisingly brief official proceedings.

The program also included the formal unveiling of the "rest of" the Shevchenko monument. Lviv's city fathers and citizenry apparently found the theretofore extant variant to be insufficiently grandiose, and so a massive polished black granite pediment was constructed for the likeness of the great bard to rest on, and behind him a 40-foot, 26-ton bronze wave (which looks more like a pierced bronze tongue) now rises, as if summoned by Taras's fixed hand.

According to the Lviv daily Vysokyi Zamok, the sculptors who designed the addition were Andriy and Volodymyr Sukhorsky, with the no. 584 Lviv Specialized Administration unit (led by Yosyp Bandyrsky and Stepan Pelenychka) overseeing the final construction of the wave and pediment.

The edifice, topped with an Oranta "Mother of Ukraine" figure, was, happily, completed in time for the fifth anniversary celebrations, unlike the roadwork on the Shevchenko Prospekt. Even as of this writing, the historic boulevard, now minus the trees that once lined it, is ripped up to the point that it has become the object of urban humor.

Most jokes suggested that the cobblestones lying in piles could be used to pelt inadequate performers at the jubilee concert held on August 25. In that light, Yosyp Kobzon, the singer who was roundly razzed on August 24 in Kyiv for singing that the border between Russia and Ukraine has torn a rift into his heart, escaped with a somewhat lighter form of disapproval.

Be that as it may, on August 24 in Lviv, the short official program was followed by an open-air concert of various choirs from the Lviv region singing patriotic favorites, and folk dance groups performing well-worn routines and parading their costumes.

The proceedings described above had an oddly familiar flavor to them for many visitors from the West, who could be heard muttering about it. In fact, if it wasn't for the historic architecture surrounding the square, one could easily be forgiven for mistaking the plaza in Lviv for a similar venue in New York or Toronto on an independence day celebration.

The habitual names of the choirs (Prometei), the age of the assembled audience (mostly over 50) and the perfervid patriotism in the air are all of one piece, whether in the West or in western Ukraine.

In a surreal touch, in the courtyard directly in front of the Opera Theater, the front lines of the most recently joined ideological battle were drawn: Coca Cola faced off against Pepsi with oversize banners, umbrellas and kiosks as children whizzed by on battery-operated plastic cars brought there to form a miniature mobile amusement park.

Also part of the day's events was the jam-packed opening of the Lviv Palace of the Arts building on Kopernyka Street, which had finally been completed after being under construction for over seven years. Situated next to the former Potocki Palace, the new gallery served as the venue for a three-floor showcase of works by the region's painters and sculptors, including the brilliant "master of color" (as he was billed in the official catalogue) Volodymyr Patyk.

The real party, August 25

As they were in Kyiv, the official celebrations were somewhat stilted and officious, but the dancing in the streets on the following day was akin to the carnival atmosphere in Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans or (in the experience of this writer) in Toronto the day after Italy won the World Cup of football (soccer to North Americans) in 1982.

The focus for the real party was a pop concert, for which a stage began going up on August 23, at the intersection of the Shevchenko Prospekt and Ivan Franko Street, under the watchful gaze of Mykhailo Hrushevsky's statue.

Thanks to a decision by the City Council to close the streets in the old "Center" to vehicular traffic, a happy crowd had already been sauntering along all day. But when the sky grew darker and the lights came on stage, the avenues were packed with mostly kids having a great time.

On the slope of the monument to Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, a klezmer band played, and a living pyramid of people grooved and danced all the way down into the street below.

On stage, Alla Kudlai, Mertvyi Piven and a host of other bands and solo performers backed up with a Western-style lightshow kept the crowds in good spirits, and when nobody was on stage, the people sang themselves.

Further up the street, a disc jockey set up shop near the Hotel George (the newly renovated former Intourist on the corner of Shevchenko and Svobody), and it seemed to matter little that his music drowned out the sound coming from the stage. The mood was festive and that seemed to be enough.

For just one night, the grim day-to-day realities of life in 5-year-old independent Ukraine were left behind. Equally heartening was that no headless plunges into drunkenness were in evidence, just joy.

In the words of local poet/cultural impresario Viktor Neborak, "Lviv is a city waiting for a carnival." On August 24-25, the fifth anniversary of independence provided the excuse.