Lost Heritage: Herman Makarenko to Restore a 250-year-old Opera
Lost Heritage: Herman Makarenko to Restore a 250-year-old Opera
For more than two centuries, Dmytro Bortnyansky's opera «Creonte» was considered lost to humanity.
Dmytro Bortnyansky, a prominent Ukrainian composer of European level, wrote his first opera «Creonte» at the age of 25. The opera premiered in 1776 at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice, where it was met with such success that further performances were planned in other European countries. However, for some unknown reason, the handwritten score disappeared after the premiere. For almost 250 years, all encyclopedic editions and musicological sources considered it lost for humanity forever.
For more than two centuries, Dmytro Bortnyansky's opera «Creonte» was considered lost to humanity.
Dmytro Bortnyansky, a prominent Ukrainian composer of European level, wrote his first opera «Creonte» at the age of 25. The opera premiered in 1776 at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice, where it was met with such success that further performances were planned in other European countries. However, for some unknown reason, the handwritten score disappeared after the premiere. For almost 250 years, all encyclopedic editions and musicological sources considered it lost for humanity forever.
At the end of 2023, musicologist, Doctor of Arts, Professor Olha Shumilina found the handwritten score of «Creonte» in the Ajuda Library (Lisbon, Portugal).
It took almost a year of exhausting work to digitize the work and prepare for its second birth in the world premiere in Kyiv, which will take place on November 11, 2024.
It took almost a year of exhausting work to digitize the work and prepare for its second birth in the world premiere in Kyiv, which will take place on November 11, 2024.
«The final rehearsals with the orchestra, chorus and soloists are underway, says the conductor and director of the opera, Herman Makarenko, – The material is difficult to perform, but without exaggeration, fantastic! The work is very original, majestic and multifaceted, because the opera combines three musical styles: the end of the Baroque era, the beginning of classicism and even romanticism in some fragments».