DATELINE NEW YORK: The heart and soul of Ukraine (12/01/02)

DATELINE NEW YORK: The heart and soul of Ukraine

by Helen Smindak

There's still about a week to go before New York enfolds Kyiv in its embrace, as the architectural highlights and history of Ukraine's capital city are unveiled in a multimedia exhibit at the Ukrainian Institute of America, and Ukrainian and American dignitaries join guests at the Plaza Hotel for the "Man of the Year" banquet.

But a goodly share of the heart and soul of Kyiv, indeed of Ukraine, is already here. It came to our shores in recent weeks through the impassioned music and songs of two Kyiv-based ensembles - pop stylists Taras Petrynenko and Tetiana Horobets, for one, and the unique vocal duet of sisters Halyna and Lesia Telnyuk, for the other.

One would expect luminous entertainers such as these, who draw capacity crowds in Ukraine, to appeal to thousands of souls who profess love for their ethnic heritage. Sad to say, the ardent recitals of these two groups were heard by only a few hundred New Yorkers.

The Telnyuk sisters' glorious, deeply introspective concert, alive with rhapsodic music and soulful Ukrainian lyrics that tugged at the heartstrings, was a dramatic contrast to the Petrynenko-Horobets concert, which combined loud pop music laced with elements of rock, flashing colored lights and audience participation ("Dateline," November 17).

Halyna and Lesia Telnyuk, natives of Kyiv, have been described as "the last bastion of true poetry and music in the domain of contemporary Ukrainian song." Their work is a synthesis of poetry and song - Lesia's heavenly music set to the poems of Ukrainian patriots (Vasyl Symonenko, Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Drach, Bohdan-Ihor Antonych, Pavlo Tychyna and Taras Shevchenko), to verses authored by Halyna, and to the poetry of their father, poet, translator, author and literary critic Stanislav Telnyuk (1935-1990).

At a November 3 concert in downtown New York, listeners were spellbound during the sisters' 90-minute program of ballads, romances and delicate pieces that spoke of love and a sense of being, that explored the place of the poet in totalitarian society, internal freedom as a prerequisite for creativity, and the question of a search for oneself. Their genre is described as rock, with stylings of individual songs ranging through folk-rock, jazz-rock, adult alternative and world music.

A classic of Ukrainian literature, Lesia Ukrayinka's poem "Dosadonka" echoing the colors and rhythms of the Carpathian Mountain region, rang out with hope and faith. Wistful, brooding pieces included a song dedicated to their father "I Todi" (And Then...). There were joyful works whose quick tempo expressed exultant feelings, such as the étude "Pomarancheve Sertse" (Orange Heart), the poem that brought Mr. Drach explosively onto the Ukrainian literary scene in the mid-1960s.

The singers were accompanied by Oleksiy Batkovsky, a graduate of the National Music Academy, playing violin, keyboard, percussion, flutes and jew's harp; he also contributed virtuoso violin solos and incredible flute work. Lesia played bandura; her soprano voice and Halyna's lower tones blending exquisitely on lyrics; for some selections Lesia handled the keyboard work, while singing along with her sister.

The esoteric feeling of the recital was carried through in modest costumes (long black gowns accessorized with narrow silver belts) and minimal make-up, while Mr. Batkovsky was in dark informal attire. Halyna's quiet, often pensive narration between songs was a sincere dialogue with listeners.

Meeting the two women in person several days after the concert brought a further revelation of their personalities and convictions. Wide eyes lustrous as they discussed their work in quiet voices, they showed intense pride and love for their music and concert tours, even though international travel takes them away from their husbands and children for six months at a time.

Halyna, 36, a journalism graduate of Kyiv State University, took the lead in speaking of the work they have done since their inception as a performing unit in 1986. Lesya, 37, who has completed studies in orchestral conducting, chimed in with additional facts here and there. They talked about several successful tours in Canada, and tours to Russia, Poland and England. In Ireland, they said, audiences were moved to tears by their rendition of "Danny Boy," sung in English and Ukrainian. They were very happy with audience turnouts in Newton, Iowa, Chicago and Kingston, Ontario, during their current tour.

Here in New York, in addition to the concert I attended, they gave a concert at the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences and presented their songs at the Consulate General of Ukraine during a reception at which Irene Kurowycky, president of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, and Laryssa Kyj, president of the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, received certificates of honor from Ukraine's president.

Among related artists whose work is similar to theirs, the sisters told me, are Joni Mitchell, Suzanne Vega, Pattie Smith, the Indigo Girls and Canada's Alexis Kochan. Their repertoire includes Ukrainian, Irish and English folk songs, songs by Bob Dylan and Oleksander Melnyk, and their own compositions. They once worked together on a song with Mick Jagger, whom they met at a festival.

Their success inspired them to write a satirical drama with music "U.B.N." (the acronym for Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism), which Halyna authored and for which Lesia wrote the score. With both women performing in the cast, "U.B.N." was first presented at the Maria Zankovetska Theater in Lviv in 2001 and later in various cities across Ukraine to public acclaim. Some officials in high places, however, rejected the drama because it ridiculed flaws in Ukrainian life that citizens did not expect to find after their country won its independence.

Currently, while Halyna is involved in researching their father's literary legacy, the sisters are making plans for more tours that will feature new songs and new costumes.

The Telnyuk Sisters took first prize at the New Names national competition in 1987, won prizes at the Chervona Ruta Festival in 1989 and 1991, and received the Vasyl Stus Award in 1998. Of their several recordings, the latest CD is "Zhar-Ptytsi" (Firebirds), the title of a poem written by their father (the song opens and closes the recording). "Firebirds" should be available soon in Ukrainian book stores, or look for it on the Internet at UMKA.com. Whether you purchase the CD or not, don't pass up a chance to hear the Telnyuk Sisters live next time they come our way.

In the media

The town of Drohobych, Ukraine, and a legendary wall painting discovered in Drohobych in February 2001 were the focus of a documentary film "Finding Pictures," screened at the Center for Jewish History on November 19. Presented on the 60th anniversary of the Gestapo shooting of Bruno Schulz, a Jewish writer and artist who lived in Drohobych, the film recounts the discovery of a Schulz mural on the wall of a children's nursery and the subsequent removal of five patches by a crew from Israel, which set off a furious international debate over where the pieces of Schulz's legacy would best be honored. (More patches have been found since and transferred to a Ukrainian museum.) Also presented were two recently translated books on the same subject, titled "Regions of the Great Heresy" (W.W. Norton) and "Drohobycz, Drohobycz and Other Stories" (Penguin).

Actor Jack Palance is back in the saddle again, or so it would seem from the commercial he's made for Lane Furniture. In cowboy gear and hat, Mr. Palance lolls back in a Lane leather sofa and drawls out a comment to the effect that "this leather sofa will last as long as I have - and you know how long I've been around." The commercial is expected to air through the end of the year.

Around town

Performing in American Ballet Theater's "Offenbach in the Underworld" at City Center, Irina Dvorovenko had a terrific opportunity to show a comic dazzle that contrasts with her ballerina manner in the 19th century classics. She was "always vibrant in a scintillating performance" as the operetta star, The New York Times critic Anna Kisselgoff said in her review. Ms. Kisselgoff also admired the work of Olga Dvorovenko, a ballet teacher who is Irina's mother, for her sprightly guest appearance in "Offenbach" as the mother of the young daughter portrayed by dancer Ashley Ellis.

New York-based sculptor Ursula von Rydingsvard, who creates massive abstract sculptures of scored and chiseled wood, has a Ukrainian connection. She is the daughter of a Ukrainian farmer from rural Poland (named Karoliszyn) who was removed with his Polish wife to Germany and forced to work for the Nazis.

Ms. von Rydingsvard's sculpture "Krasawica II" (krasawica-krasavytsia is Ukrainian for beautiful young woman) was exhibited earlier this year at the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, N.Y. Her work has been shown in hundreds of solo and group exhibitions and in numerous publications, but her first public-art commission, an enormous sculpture titled "Katul-Katul," is just being installed in the atrium of the Queens Family Courthouse in Jamaica, Queens.

At the United Nations staff day, marked by U.N. employees on October 25 with a parade in ethnic costumes in the General Assembly hall, Russian-born Yulia Neprina represented Ukraine. Ms. Neprina, who works for the World Association of the United Nations and has a Ukrainian grandmother, attempted to find a Ukrainian performing group for the occasion. She managed to contact Daria Genza, a kindergarten teacher at St. George Ukrainian Catholic School, two days before the event - not quite enough advance for Ms. Genza's young charges. There are great hopes on both sides for close cooperation next year.

Boris Mikhailov's photographs, shot in 1986 near the Ukrainian town of Slaviansk on the Donets River ("Dateline," August 18), have been published in a book "Salt Lake" (Steidl/D.A.P.), showing workers frolicking in a lagoon where foaming sodium waste flows from broken concrete ducts. Reviewing the book in The New York Times, D.J.R. Bruckner notes there are no captions - "we make up stories as we turn the unnumbered pages, not about joy among these revelers but their satisfaction with defying a hard history and a monstrous state. But now the Soviet Union is dead, along with three centuries of Russian stranglehold on Ukraine. The era captured here is as distant as Pompeii - a recognition that leaves us bereft. And that feeling is Mikhailov's tribute."

Postscripts

Two works by woodcut and linocut artist Jacques Hnizdovsky were inspired by animals at the Bronx Zoo's Children's Farm. Mr. Hnizdovsky drew sketches there that became his "Sheep" and "Ram" woodcuts. The "Sheep" woodcut recently found a new life as the illustration on black cotton canvas tote bags sold at the Museum of Fine Arts gift shop in Boston (so popular they immediately sold out). The tote bags may be purchased via the website www.mfa.org/shop.
Here's an update on the "fusion food" served at the Ukrainian Institute of America's cocktail party (original info given to me was not entirely correct). The actual hors d'oeuvres included kovbasa quesadillas, mini Hudson Valley pumpkin varenyky (in shumai wraps), mini curried chicken-stuffed cabbage, spiced apple and currant blintzes (nalysnyky), and cold beet consommé. Chef Andrij Sonevytsky was assisted with food preparation by volunteers Lucietta Derkatch, Svitlana Jablonska and Svitlana Mysak. Gourmet breads, focaccia and other baked goods were graciously donated by Mark Tasker of Balthazar Bakery. Wines came from Georgia and Hungary (not Bulgaria), sparkling wines were from Crimea, and the beers and vodkas were exclusively Ukrainian.
The ethnic identity of opera singer Anna Netrebko, questioned in "Dateline" last August, has been settled. Ms. Netrebko is not Ukrainian, according to word from Weekly reader Joseph Levitzky. Mr. Levitzky and Svoboda music critic Bohdan Markiw met Ms. Netrebko and Ukrainian tenor Misha Didyk at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia following a performance of Bellini's opera "The Capulets and the Montagues." Ms. Netrebko told them quite firmly she was Russian - from Krasnodar, Russia.

Helen Smindak's e-mail address is [email protected].

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