Media attention was never the reason for her having taken up this profession.\u00a0Liudmyla\u00a0Monastyrska\u00a0also makes a reserved impression in our Zoom interview, and despite her good knowledge of English, she allows a friend to translate for her. The fact that a Ukrainian singer, of all people, is replacing Anna\u00a0Netrebko\u00a0as Turandot at the Met in May increases the public pressure enormously even for this soprano who is used to success and has an international track record. All the more so since she last sang the role in public seven years ago and she admits that Puccini’s princess is not exactly her favorite role. \u201cI just don’t understand this woman\u201d, she says, \u201cbitter and aggressive – thank God she finally shows feelings when\u00a0Calaf\u00a0kisses her.\u201d One gets the impression that this role, for the\u00a0shy and gentle-looking artist,\u00a0is\u00a0just as inappropriate as the situation in which she involuntarily finds herself at the moment.\u00a0Monastyrska\u00a0speaks to us from a living room in Warsaw, in\u00a0self-imposed exile, while her parents and brother have remained in Kyiv and the two children are safe in Poland and Romania. \u201cMy whole soul is in my homeland\u00a0and is very sad\u201d, she says, \u201cbut physically I’m okay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Monastyrska\u00a0travels all over the world, but\u00a0still\u00a0considers Kyiv\u00a0her home. The center of her life is still there – at least\u00a0it was until a few weeks ago,\u00a0before Putin started bombing the country. She is in daily contact with her colleagues at the Ukrainian National Opera via Telegram and online. There are also new horror stories coming from there every day \u2013 and sometimes\u00a0there is\u00a0desperate hope. \u201cImagine the Kyiv Opera wanting to play again in April after more than a month of closure.\u00a0In reality it is\u00a0probably impossible, but no one there wants to give up. And as I\u00a0have\u00a0heard, our musicians go into subway tunnels and make music to cheer up the people there a little.\u201d\u00a0She knows the city’s\u00a0cultural\u00a0scene, was a member of the\u00a0opera\u00a0ensemble for many years, and made her stage debut there in 1996 as\u00a0Tatjana\u00a0in Tchaikovsky’s \u201cEugene\u00a0Onegin\u201d before she launched her\u00a0operatic career.\u00a0\u201cRight now, all I can do is\u00a0help my\u00a0country by participating in benefit concerts and expressing my sense of belonging to Ukraine and\u00a0by\u00a0my\u00a0loud\u00a0protest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anna and Liudmyla?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n She knows that stepping in in New York for her Russian colleague Anna\u00a0Netrebko, of all people, is attracting a lot of attention \u2013 and\u00a0Liudmyla\u00a0is grateful for the opportunity to sing this Turandot for Ukraine as well. \u201cIt is\u00a0a great honor for me to be able to represent and present my country in\u00a0this way.\u201d However, she does not\u00a0want to use the term \u201chappy\u201d because she feels too sad and angry. \u201cIn my opinion, artists who openly support the Putin system should not be given a stage. In my opinion,\u00a0Anna explained her position far too late.\u00a0A whole month without a statement from the number one\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0opera world?\u00a0That is intolerable for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are there actually parallels between Anna Netrebko and Liudmyla Monastyrska – maybe in terms of their voices? As expected, the careful question did not meet with great enthusiasm. \u201cNo, we’re not alike, not even in terms of our voices.\u201d The answer comes promptly and harshly. \u201cAnna is an outstanding singer with a great career and has many managers and consultants working with her. That is just not my world.\u201d Shortly before the beginning of the war, both were alternately engaged for the role of Aida in Naples. Did you not meet there in person? \u201cOf course I know Anna. She makes her own decisions, she is an adult. I would rather not meet with her at the moment, though.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She does not\u00a0know why Peter Gelb, General Manager of the world’s largest opera house, made a personal call to\u00a0specifically\u00a0choose\u00a0Liudmyla\u00a0Monastyrska.\u00a0It can be assumed that her origins played a (political) role in this, but she remains modest and realistic, true to her nature. \u201cSurely there would have been some very good alternatives with a Ukrainian background. I can only say that I am very proud that\u00a0I was chosen.\u201d\u00a0However, we wanted to\u00a0find out\u00a0more about this,\u00a0inquired\u00a0and promptly received the following statement from Peter Gelb: \u201cThe fact that I asked\u00a0Liudmyla\u00a0is not because she is Ukrainian, but because I know that her expressive, dramatic voice\u00a0is\u00a0perfectly\u00a0suited for this role \u2013 even if\u00a0it\u00a0is not\u00a0in her current repertoire at the moment. In order to sing large Italian repertoire on the big\u00a0stage of the Metropolitan Opera, a singer needs a stable\u00a0and very powerful voice.\u00a0Liudmyla\u00a0had already proven this ‚Met suitability‘ several times before as Aida and\u00a0Abigaille\u00a0and sang both roles with great success\u00a0at our house. The fact that she is from Ukraine is the icing on the cake. No more and no less.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n From Ukraine to the big global stages<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Monastyrska made her European debut in 2010 as Tosca at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, one of her favorite roles and in which she can still be heard regularly to this day. In the years that followed, engagements as Aida and Tosca at the Op\u00e9ra national de Paris and the Metropolitan Opera followed, there as well – together with Pl\u00e1cido Domingo in 2016 – as Abigaille in \u201cNabucco\u201d. This performance was broadcast live to cinemas worldwide and was seen by 50,000 (!) visitors in a single performance in Germany and Austria. In the same year, she was heard as Aida at the Bavarian State Opera and at the Vienna State Opera under Simone Young, almost a year after her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2015 in the new production of \u201cCavalleria rusticana\u201d alongside Jonas Kaufmann. This was followed by engagements as Lady Macbeth and Abigaille at the Royal Opera House in London and at La Scala in Milan. And an Aida is on the agenda for this summer \u2013 this time in the Arena di Verona, \u201cas far away from the war as possible\u201d, as she puts it. \u201cEven if it accompanies me everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zeffirelli’s\u00a0splendid\u00a0\u201cTurandot\u201d\u00a0production of the Met \u2013 a favorite with the public since 1987 \u2013 certainly cannot heal her traumatic\u00a0experience.\u00a0On May 7, 2022, \u201cTurandot\u201d\u00a0will be broadcast live in over 200 cinemas in Germany and Austria.\u00a0Monastyrska\u00a0calls it an important \u201cstatement engagement\u201d,\u00a0but she would generally prefer her own contracts,\u00a0in which she, as she puts it, \u201cis wanted from the start\u201d.\u00a0In this case, she knows about the effect \u2013 and tries to be pragmatic. The only time during our conversation that she\u00a0seems almost cheerful. \u201cI’ve got my work visa and hey, we’re talking about the Metropolitan Opera. It’s always a highlight to be able to sing there.\u00a0So,\u00a0let’s\u00a0go!“<\/p>\n\n\n\n What would she like to say to\u00a0a\u00a0Vladimir Putin if given the chance? She is silent for a while, visibly struggling for words and composure \u2013 the answer that follows sounds well considered: \u201cI have no words for Putin and I have been shocked for weeks. For me, he is a sick man and for us normal, peace-loving Ukrainians the situation is incomprehensible. We are in the 21st century – can you seriously just go and slaughter people?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear Ms.\u00a0Monastyrska, even Turandot\u2019s\u00a0icy character is changed by love. We wish for you and your country that this possibility is not confined to the opera stage.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Translated by Dagmar Hesse-Kreindler<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This article is from Orpheus Magazine 03\/2022, one of the leading German opera magazines since 1973.<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Liudmyla instead of Anna \u2013 the new Turandot at the Met<\/p>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":7540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tpgb_global_settings":"","_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":4,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein"],"tpgb_featured_images":{"full":["https:\/\/www.orpheus-magazin.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Liudmyla-Monastyrska.jpg",1500,844,false],"tp-image-grid":["https:\/\/www.orpheus-magazin.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Liudmyla-Monastyrska.jpg",700,394,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.orpheus-magazin.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Liudmyla-Monastyrska-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.orpheus-magazin.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Liudmyla-Monastyrska-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.orpheus-magazin.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Liudmyla-Monastyrska-768x432.jpg",600,338,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.orpheus-magazin.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Liudmyla-Monastyrska-1024x576.jpg",600,338,true],"default":"https:\/\/www.orpheus-magazin.de\/wp-content\/plugins\/the-plus-addons-for-block-editor\/assets\/images\/tpgb-placeholder.jpg"},"tpgb_post_meta_info":{"get_date":"26. April 2022","get_modified_date":"27. April 2022","category_list":{"category":[{"term_id":1,"name":"Allgemein","slug":"allgemein","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":9,"filter":"raw","order":"0"}],"post_tag":false},"author_name":"Silvia Murauer","author_url":"https:\/\/www.orpheus-magazin.de\/de\/author\/mailsilviamurauer-de\/","author_email":"mail@silviamurauer.de","author_website":"","author_description":"","author_facebook":"","author_twitter":"","author_instagram":"","author_role":["administrator"],"author_firstname":"Silvia","author_lastname":"Murauer","user_login":"mail@silviamurauer.de","author_avatar":"