Article published in October 2014
"- ...Hello! Yes! Well, I'm at the theater... The Bat. Free entry... well, I thought, why not go for free... watch..." The man spoke in a gruff voice into the phone, standing by the window on the third floor of the Donetsk theater. From here, there was a view of Artema Street. Young people were skating and waving flags. It seemed that a procession had just passed by from Lenin Square. At the same time as the popular procession, an important cultural event took place in Donetsk — the opening of the season at the Solovianenko Opera and Ballet Theater, known as Donbass Opera.
The Long-Awaited Debut
The opening took place amid almost continuous artillery fire and without any pompous speeches. The gift for the audience was free entry. It was decided to start the season on October 4 with the operetta "The Bat." The next day, the theater presented the children's play "The Wizard of the Emerald City."
"We are offering the first performances for free to the people of the city, starting with an operetta and a children's fairy tale, so that people can smile a bit," said the theater's General Director, Vasily Ivanovich Ryabenkiy, before the performance. "And then, I think, starting in November, we’ll return to the usual routine and start offering paid performances. Of course, the prices will consider that the population is almost without salaries. We will make concessions and set the minimum ticket prices."
The opening of the theater season showed how much the Donetsk audience had missed the arts. The auditorium of Donbass Opera has over a thousand seats — and on October 6, all of them were occupied. In the darkness, people were searching for available spots in the back rows of the balcony and settling on chairs placed in the aisles.
Before the start of the operetta, smiling theater workers distributed free brochures to those interested, which, on this day, replaced the usual programs. The glossy, colorful pages of the brochures told the history of the theater. Few Donetsk residents remember that the opera and ballet theater opened in April 1941, just before the war.
"It operated during the occupation years. It closed for three months to restore the backstage area after a fire, but by January 1943, the theater was already staging performances again," the theater director spoke passionately before the performance.
The brochure introduced the audience to the key milestones in the theater's history, highlighting treasures such as the unique Stars of World Ballet festival, the only children's ballet festival in Europe, Gran Pa, the international ballet artist competition named after Serge Lifar, and of course, the grandest production of Wagner's opera The Flying Dutchman...
"It operated during the occupation years. It closed for three months to restore the backstage area after a fire, but by January 1943, the theater was already staging performances again," the theater director spoke passionately before the performance.
The brochure introduced the audience to the key milestones in the theater's history, highlighting treasures such as the unique Stars of World Ballet festival, the only children's ballet festival in Europe, Gran Pa, the international ballet artist competition named after Serge Lifar, and of course, the grandest production of Wagner's opera The Flying Dutchman...
People were impatiently clapping in front of the closed curtain. Finally, the conductor raised his baton, and the first notes began to play... Three hours of the operetta flew by unnoticed. Laughter filled the hall, triggered by the ironic dialogues of the operetta's characters. Some people hummed along to the familiar waltzes of Strauss, while others snored in the first act, causing surprised smiles from their neighbors.
As people strolled through the theater's floors during the intermissions, they smiled at each other. Women finally had a reason to wear their festive dresses, while men wore their weekend trousers and shirts. Some met old friends for the first time in a long while, while others arranged a date. Grandmothers in snow-white blouses led their grandchildren by the hand. Everything here felt like the peaceful days of Donetsk’s existence, with only the closed buffet and the tears of the audience during the long ovations at the end as a difference. It had been a long time since the people of Donetsk had clapped so sincerely.
As people strolled through the theater's floors during the intermissions, they smiled at each other. Women finally had a reason to wear their festive dresses, while men wore their weekend trousers and shirts. Some met old friends for the first time in a long while, while others arranged a date. Grandmothers in snow-white blouses led their grandchildren by the hand. Everything here felt like the peaceful days of Donetsk’s existence, with only the closed buffet and the tears of the audience during the long ovations at the end as a difference. It had been a long time since the people of Donetsk had clapped so sincerely.
What was Behind the Curtains
Just as behind the graceful movements of a ballerina lies the hard work at the barre, behind the relaxed and much-anticipated atmosphere cherished by Donetsk residents, there were challenges that the theater workers had to overcome to open the season.
The official vacation for the artists ended on August 1, but for another month, most of the troupe was outside the city. The entire company spent this month on unpaid leave, but by September 1, employees of Donbass Opera began to return, and today, over a hundred out of the 300 staff members have come back to the theater. According to Vasily Ryabenkiy, all members of the company made the personal decision to return to Donetsk and start working: "This is a personal matter for each one because, as a leader, I cannot ensure their safety at this point. They make the decision themselves."
At the same time, as Vasily Ivanovich admitted, the theater staff had not received their salaries for the third month in a row. And on the day of the season opening, the artists, so to speak, performed "hungry."
"But we understand everything," added Vasily Ryabenkiy. "You know, I am simply amazed by the patriotism of the staff: musicians, soloists, choir and ballet artists, technical personnel — all of them, despite the shelling and danger, came to the theater. Yesterday, during the final rehearsal, I went out to the team and asked once again: 'Well, are we going to work or postpone the performances (due to the shelling that happened yesterday and the day before)?' They all answered in unison, 'We will work.' I consider them heroes and patriots."
The director of Donbass Opera explains the collective's eagerness to perform for the people of Donetsk at all costs as being driven by the artists' longing for the stage. "For them, the stage is the most important thing. Everyone has missed working and is eager to get back on stage, to sing, to play — to fulfill their duties and show the audience their art," admitted Vasily Ivanovich.
Inevitable Losses and Unexpected Gains
However, the forced migration of Donetsk residents affected the staff of Donbass Opera. All four of the conductors who had worked at the theater had left. According to the director, they had already found work in Ukraine and were unlikely to return. Conductors for the first performances of the new season were found among the theater’s musicians. On October 6, the orchestra was conducted by Alexander Ivanovich Pakholenko, the first clarinetist of our orchestra. In the production of The Wizard of the Emerald City, the orchestra was conducted by the opera soloist, baritone Sergey Alexandrovich Dubnitsky.
"They are all 'on their toes,' they know the music, so they took on one performance each. They rehearsed together, and it’s working. But this is just the beginning, and of course, we will look for professionals," assured Vasily Ryabenkiy.
To the credit of the debutant conductors, it should be noted that the audience did not hear any mistakes or pauses in the orchestra's performance.
In addition to the staff losses, the theater also lost a significant portion of its property during the military actions. In the Kiev district of the city, there is a warehouse for the theater's heavy set pieces, and it was in this warehouse, just days before the performance, that two shells hit, causing a fire.
"Two mines pierced the roof of the warehouse, and the heavy set pieces from almost all of our performances were destroyed. Stands, steps, machines, wooden models — these were all destroyed. Most of it was wooden items, but some were metal. All these materials are crucial for our performances. We have already conducted an inventory and are sending the information to the Ministry of Culture of the DPR (yesterday we received an official document stating that we are all now under the republic’s jurisdiction). I can't say yet how much the loss amounts to, but it is a significant loss for us," described the problem Vasily Ivanovich.
However, some of the set pieces were preserved, especially since all the costumes, soft decorations, and backdrops were kept in the theater. As if anticipating the trouble, just a couple of weeks before the fire, the theater management decided to move everything that could be saved from the warehouse into the theater building. For example, all the set pieces for the opera Eugene Onegin were kept in perfect condition. By the way, rehearsals for this opera have already begun, and soon audiences will be able to attend it.
