The Metropolitan Opera and the Lincoln Center Theater announced Monday the commission from Ukrainian composer Maxim Kolomiiets for an opera whose subject will be based on the story of Ukrainian mothers who fought to recover their children kidnapped and detained by Russian forces.
It was during a meeting between Olena Zelenska, the wife of Volodymyr Zelensky, and Peter Gelb in the fall of 2022, we learn from the press release released by the New York institution on Monday, that this project was decided. The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture then invited applications from composers from the country. The Met’s Opera Commissioning Programs team, led by Paul Cremo, reviewed 72 applications and selected Maxim Kolomiiets.
Committed institution
Kolomiiets, who will be associated with librettist George Brant, is an oboist, arranger and composer born in 1981 in kyiv, living in Germany. He was oboist of the kyiv Symphony Orchestra and creator of a contemporary music ensemble in Ukraine. As a composer, he has already written two operas: Espenbaumperformed in concert version, and Nitch, excerpts of which were premiered in August 2020 on Ukrainian Radio by the kyiv Symphony Orchestra. His next creation, Moon and stonesfor 5 voices, percussion, piano and harp, in October in Heidelberg, Germany, received the support of the famous Ernst von Siemens Foundation.
The opera commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera will therefore be about the fight of Ukrainian mothers to get their children back. The Met press release points out that “although the characters in the opera are largely fictional, the story is based on real events on the ground in Ukraine and in The Hague, where Vladimir Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova been accused of war crimes for the kidnapping of the children. Faced with these accusations, Lvova-Belova announced that the mothers would have six months to find their children, after which time they would lose them forever, because they would become wards of the Russian state.
This is not the first time that the Met has made a direct commitment to Ukraine through strong and symbolic actions. Since the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian anthem had sounded within its walls before a performance of Don Carlos directed by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The conductor then, on March 14, 2022, led a “Concert for Ukraine”, recorded by Deutsche Grammophon. For the first anniversary of the war, Yannick Nézet-Séguin had scheduled the Requiem by Mozart. Repeated cyberattacks took down the Metropolitan Opera’s website and reservation system for several days in December 2022.
“We are proud to continue supporting Ukraine culturally. The heroism of these Ukrainian mothers in the face of Russian atrocities is a story that must be amplified in the theater,” said Met Director Peter Gelb.
The date on which the opera will be presented is not yet known. This is the Met’s second commission from librettist George Brant, who is involved in an opera based on his own play, Grounded, which will be premiered in Washington in October 2023 with music by Jeanine Tesori.Grounded, whose main role will be played by Canadian mezzo Emily D’Angelo, has as its heroine an F-16 fighter pilot who, pregnant, finds herself guiding drones in a conflict zone. The opera addresses the fact that the psychological trauma of war is not necessarily linked to the immediate physical danger. It will be on display at the Met in fall 2024.