DATELINE NEW YORK: A cultural selection for everyone (03/19/00)

DATELINE NEW YORK: A cultural selection for everyone

by Helen Smindak

It would seem that my observation about the "dearth of large performing ensembles from Ukraine" ("Dateline New York," February 29) has been heard and taken to heart, for, lo and behold, word has just been received that the spectacular Veryovka Ukrainian National Song and Dance Company will appear in the New York area in November. Last seen here in 1996, the 80-member group of singers, dancers and musicians will perform at the New Jersey Center for the Performing Arts on November 26 in Newark, N.J. November is also the month that will bring the resplendent gold treasures of the ancient Scythians to the Brooklyn Museum in the tour de force exhibit "Gold of the Nomads." Already shown at the San Antonio Museum of Art in Texas, the landmark exhibition is now on view at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore.

The New York City Opera has announced that its fall season will include a new production of Verdi's "Rigoletto" that will see the New York debut of Ukrainian tenor Michael Didyk, alternating with tenor Raul Hernandez in the role of the Duke of Mantua. The new production premieres on November 11.

Mr. Didyk, a native of the Khmelnytskyi region and a soloist with the National Opera of Ukraine, gave an outstanding performance as Alfredo in Verdi's "La Traviata" last season at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Described by critics as young, handsome and talented, with a wonderful stage presence and a tenor's temperament, he appears to have a promising future ahead of him.

Odesa-born soprano Maria Guleghina, who triumphed at the Metropolitan Opera in the title role of "Aida" in 1998, will return to Lincoln Center next season after a maternity leave to appear in a concert of Russian and Italian songs at Alice Tully Hall on February 4, 2001.

New York City Opera diva Oksana Krovytska, following four consecutive years as an impassioned "Butterfly," is scheduled to appear at the New York State Theater in March 2001 as Donna Elvira in Mozart's "Don Giovanni."

But there are important events happening right now, this month and next, exciting events in the worlds of ballet, figure skating, opera, music and art. Let me count the ways.

In great voice

Following a Chicago stint in Donizetti's "L'Elisir d'Amore," where he gave his usual masterly portrayal of the itinerant quack doctor Dulcamara, bass Paul Plishka returns to the Metropolitan Opera stage this month in Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia." He appears in the comic opera on March 27 and 31 and on April 4, 7 and 12. Earlier this season, The New York Times' Paul Griffiths applauded Mr. Plishka's performance in "Le Nozze di Figaro," describing Mr. Plishka's Bartolo and Michel Senechal's Basilio as "two very proper gentlemen who could have popped out of an 18th-century caricature ... the characters look, move and behave like people close to the beginning of adult life."
The Met's current production of Shostakovich's "Lady Macbeth of the Myensk District," a work that updates an opera from its historical setting to the approximate present, benefitted from the singing of Sergei Koptchak, a longtime member of the Met roster who comes from the Ukrainian area of northeastern Slovakia. In a March 11 review in The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini referred to him as "the gravelly bass Sergei Koptchak" who portrayed "the pontificating father-in-law, Boris Ismailov."
Bandura maestro Julian Kytasty took time out this month from duties as director of the New York Bandura Ensemble to participate in Toronto's "Bandura 2000" Festival this weekend (March 17-19). As a member of the Experimental Bandura Trio along with Michael Andrec and Jurij Fedynsky, he is happy to announce the release of the trio's first CD, combining original compositions and improvisations. The new CD will be given a formal presentation on March 29 at a loft concert directed by Tom O'Horgan, the director of the famous Broadway musical "Hair." Currently, Mr. Kytasty is also working with Winnipeg singer Alexis Kochan on a follow-up CD to their first collaboration, the popular "Paris to Kyiv: Variances" album. The two recently co-authored a chapter on the bandura titled "Ukraine: The Band Played On" in a book edited by Simon Broughton "World Music, Vol. 1 The Rough Guide - Africa, Europe and the Middle East, A to Z of the Music, Musicians and Discs."

Skating sensations

Champions on Ice, the leading candidate for best ice skating entertainment of the country, returns to the New York area in a few weeks (and, indeed, the whole country) with its summer 2000 cast of Olympic, world and national champions that includes Oksana Baiul, Viktor Petrenko and the specialty comedy duo of Vladimir Besedin and Oleksiy Polischuk of Ukraine. Opening in Baltimore on April 6, the John Hancock Champions on Ice tour, produced by Tom Collins, will come to Madison Square Garden in New York on April 14, with outings also scheduled for Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island, on April 13 and the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J., on April 15.

While Mr. Petrenko has been appearing consistently with Champions on Ice, Ms. Baiul was absent from the line-up for a couple of years, concentrating on getting her act together after that unnerving driving accident in Connecticut and a leg injury that sidelined her for a while. "It's so hard to push yourself," she recently told an NBC-TV interviewer. "It's so easy to hide - that's what I used to do. It's so much harder to live in the real world." In recent competitions like the World Figure Skating Championships in January, she presented a new look: slender, sophisticated and remarkably calm.

Messrs. Besedin and Polischuk, both natives of the Kyiv area, have been an ice team for four years, each contributing an extensive and successful background as floor acrobats, with Mr. Polischuk having been a national champion. (Another Ukrainian-born skater, Evgeny Platov, a member of the well-known dance team of Usova and Platov and a former partner of Pasha [formerly Oksana] Grishuk, is identified in shows as Russian though he began life in Odesa.)
The Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers, the only year-round, indoor ice skating arena in Manhattan, now boasts two Ukrainian coaches, both born in Odesa. Samvel Gazallion, a product of the prestigious Odesa Figure Skating School, competed in the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, placing 24th, and in the 1994 Olympics, where he finished 11th, and won the Belarusian Championships three times in a row (1993-1995). Slava Rozanskia, who attended the Odesa skating school a few years before Mr. Gazallion and came to the U.S. a year ago, is a well-known coach who trained an Israeli skater to an 18th place finish at the 1998 Olympic Games. According to Sky Rink officials, the rink's Eastern European coaches (there are three Russian coaches in addition to the two Ukrainians) are having great success, despite a language barrier and a somewhat different teaching style from that typically used in the United States. Sky Rink is often used by many Eastern European medalists, including Ms. Baiul.

The light fantastic

The American Ballet Theatre's eight-week Metropolitan Opera House season, which begins May 8, will show off the precision, grace and virtuosity of dancers Vladimir Malakhov, Maxim Belotserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko. Mr. Malakhov is scheduled to appear in first-night productions of Kenneth McMillan's majestic "Romeo and Juliet," as well as the lavish "Le Corsaire" and the exotic "La Bayadere." He will have a leading role in the world premiere of the ABT's all-new "Swan Lake" and will dance a principal role in the company's revival of the enchanting Bournonville work "La Sylphide."

Known for his phenomenal line and leaps, Mr. Malakhov is a principal dancer with the ABT and Germany's internationally famed Stuttgart Ballet; he is also a guest artist with the Vienna State Opera Ballet and the State Opera of Berlin. His most recent performance in New York took place during the Stuttgart Ballet's four-day engagement at City Center in January. (The tour, incidentally, included a new ballet by the Italian Mauro Bigonzetti - "Kazimir's Colors" - a work stressing assymetrical partnering, inspired by the paintings of the Kyiv-born avant-gardist Kazimir Malevich.)

Mr. Belotserkovsky and Ms. Dvorovenko, husband and wife in real life, whose elegant and expressive dancing has been admired by many critics, will appear together in the 19th-century classic "Don Quixote," and will perform separately in several productions, among them "La Sylphide" and "La Bayadere."
Dancer Stephanie Godino, who has often appeared with the New York City Opera ballet ensemble and is currently teaching at the Joffrey School, received an assignment in Nebraska recently. She spent time instructing and preparing the members of the Omaha Ballet for a special presentation. The result: an entire show of short skits, dances and pantomime by the company in Omaha.
The Moscow-based Russian Seasons Dance Company, which takes audiences on a journey through the folk dances of many nations, including Ukraine, wound up a U.S. tour with a stop at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College on March 4. For its grand finale, the 30-member troupe, which often dances the Hopak (erroneously called the hopek of Russia in press releases and publicity material), trotted out a colorful Kozak dance, complete with acrobatic tricks and Ukrainian costumes.
The Tamburitzans of Duquesne University have kept their promise. Starting their 63rd season last fall, the Tammies announced that their colorful whirlwind tour of Central and Eastern Europe would include a Ukrainian folk dance. The dance was not performed when the ensemble appeared in New York last October, due to lack of preparation time, but it's in the repertoire now. "Under the Cherry Tree," a Ukrainian character sketch incorporating humorous puppet-like movements, will be sure to draw audience laughter this weekend at Bergen Technical High School in Hackensack, N.J.

One of a kind

Michael Skorr (Skorobohach) was a dynamic member of New York's Ukrainian community in the 1930s as an actor, singer, director, conductor and producer of many Ukrainian operatic plays and musical comedies. He appeared in the Ukrainian films "Marusia" and "Natalka Poltavka," directed a Ukrainian version of Brandon Thomas's English comedy "Charley's Aunt" for the Ukrainian National Theater and performed on radio with outstanding vocal ensembles for many years. Two books of Ukrainian folk songs and dances which he compiled and arranged for the accordion were published here by Pietro Deiro Publications, and LP records of Michel Skorr's accordion music were released by Monitor Recordings and Colonial Record Co.

It's estimated that he presented more than 1,200 concerts featuring the music of Ukraine in high schools and colleges throughout the United States. He remained active as an entertainer and musician in Florida after moving there in 1968; during the summers he and his wife, Marusia, and son Orson entertained for 18 consecutive years at the Columbia Hotel in Sharon Springs, N.Y.

Mr. Skorr, now completing a 300-page memoir titled "From Obscurity to Paradise," and his son were recently interviewed about their newest recording releases "Ukrainian House Party" and "Ukrainian Dance Party" (available at the Surma Book Co. in New York) by Voice of America. The interview and the music on their new CDs were sent over the airwaves twice to VOA's estimated 7 million to 12 million listeners in Ukraine. Mr. Skorr would be a terrific addition to The Ukrainian Museum's series on life in New York's Ukrainian community, part of New York City's continuing celebration of this city as the immigrant capital of the world!

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