DATELINE NEW YORK: An exciting season (07/20/97)

DATELINE NEW YORK: An exciting season

by Helen Smindak

The grandeur of Kyivan Rus'

Close to half a million visitors who viewed "The Glory of Byzantium" exhibit during its four-month run at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York inspected the art of the Middle Byzantine Empire (843 to 1261) and were introduced to the grandeur and the glory of Kyivan Rus'.

A Metropolitan Museum spokeswoman, who gave the exact number of visitors as 460,800, said museum officials were "very pleased" with the attendance figures. The exhibit, which closed on July 6, was shown only in New York and included 350 masterpieces from major museums in 24 countries.

Mounted in a gallery to evoke the serene and stately interior of a church were four huge mosaics of gold and glass tesseras from St. Michael's of the Golden Domes Monastery in Kyiv and a portion of the mosaic floor from the Desiatynna Church in Kyiv, the earliest recorded masonry church in medieval Rus'. The mosaic floor, circa 996, was composed of white marble, porphyry, verd antique, spotted marble and some glass.

In addition to these works of art on loan from Kyiv museums, the exhibit included an 11th century marble capital (the top of a column) from St. Sophia Cathedral; icons of wood, carved and painted with egg tempera over gesso; medallions; fragments of an embossed leather monastic girdle; a hinged bracelet and ornamental temple (headdress) pendants and chains.

Lviv's Historical Museum contributed two red clay tiles from 12th century Kyivan Rus' (Halych), while the Natsionalnyi Zapovidnyk Khersones Tavriiskyi in Sevastopol sent over a 12th century icon of steatite, with traces of gilding and blue paint, depicting three military saints. One item came from the Museum of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. in South Bound Brook, N.J. - a bronze cross enkolpion (reliquary with a sacred image, worn at the breast) dating from before 1240.

The exhibit is being dismantled and artifacts are being packed for shipment back to donor countries, but some items will remain at The Metropolitan Museum. Among these are 11th and 12th century Kyivan Rus' pendants and earrings made of gold and cloisonné enamel or silver gilt and niello - part of a 1917 gift to the museum from financier J. Pierpont Morgan - which will be reinstalled in the Byzantine corridor by early fall.

The museum reports that reproductions of Kyivan Rus' enamel and gold pins, earrings and pendants, available in the spring, are out of stock. However, stunning copies of Kyivan-Rus' silver and granulated jewelry can be purchased in gift shops in the Great Hall, along with poster-size prints of the Kyiv mosaics (framed or unframed), a silk scarf emblazoned with an abstract geometric motif based on a pair of temple pendants, and a stone plaque with a griffin motif based on a Kyivan Rus' (Halych) red clay tile.

The exhibit catalogue, a 600-page fully illustrated book that includes contributions by more than 50 scholars and photos of all the works in the Byzantium exhibit, is available in both soft-cover and hardbound editions - a great treasure for those who saw the exhibit and especially for those who did not manage to get to this extraordinary exhibition.

"From Ukraine..."

With Viktor Petrenko and Oksana Baiul of Ukraine heading the cast, some 30 of the world's top figure skaters took to the ice in mid-April for the Campbells' Soups 1997 Tour of World Figure Skating Champions. The coast-to-coast tour, which ended last Sunday in Los Angeles, is estimated to have drawn over 1 million spectators.

"Take 60 shows, multiply by the number of seats in each arena - 20,000 - and you come up with 1,200,000," a spokeswoman at Keith Sherman Associates in New York told "Dateline."

Tens of thousands of television viewers watched ABC-TV's telecast of the tour's Philadelphia performance.

When the champions' tour hit New York on June 21, Madison Square Garden was packed with exuberant fans cheering the appearance of each skater and skating pair with uproars of applause - among them Nicole Bobek, Surya Bonaly, Brian Boitano, Rudy Galindo, Todd Eldredge, Nancy Kerrigan, Michelle Kwan and Elvis Stojko, pairs champions Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, and Isabelle Brasseur and lloyd Eisler, and dance champions Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, Oksana Grishuk and Evgeny Platov, and Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow.

The widest and longest applause came with each appearance of Mr. Petrenko and Ms. Baiul in their solo performance and in the opening and closing numbers which brought out the entire company.

At least six times during the evening, as spotlights played over the ice, the announcer's voice boomed out vigorously over the sound of loud music and the fans' applause - "From Ukraine - Viktor Petrenko! From Ukraine - Oksana Baiul!"

Sporting a long-sleeved black mesh top over black tights for his solo number, Mr. Petrenko exuded a sensuous and rakish charm as he gyrated, twirled and jumped to the music of "I'm Too Sexy." His skating prowess and seductive manner delighted the audience; at the end, he grinned boyishly and waved his arms above his head while taking bows.

Ms. Baiul, the final soloist of the evening, portrayed a young swan in its first attempt at flight. Gliding and fluttering to the strains of a poignant and somewhat brooding Beethoven symphony, she moved gracefully across the ice in a brief green and orange costume, a large piece of greenish fabric furling and unfurling around her outstretched arms. As the music slowed, she drifted languidly like a tired bird and finally huddled inside the wing-like fabric. Although she took two falls during jumps, there was prolonged applause and cheering for the Olympic champion whom skating fans adore no matter what she does.

Unlike Mr. Petrenko, Ms. Baiul seemed a bit skittish when taking bows, especially at the end of the show, no doubt because she knew she had not given a flawless performance. After one of her falls, she paused and raised her hands in a questioning pose - as though to say, "What happened there?" - instead of picking herself up and continuing to skate as professionals normally do.

Both Ms. Baiul and Mr. Petrenko are expected to take part in upcoming winter and spring tours, according to the KSA publicist. The two-month winter tour, which will open in January 1998, will feature professional skaters, while the spring tour that begins in May will include new Olympic champions. Both tours will have a new name, "Champions On Ice."

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