Ukrainian opera star to sing here in La Traviata
ACCLAIMED Ukrainian baritone Vitali Bilyi is practising by candlelight and under threat of war in his downtown Odessa apartment as he prepares to take to the stage in Dublin in a lavish new production of La Traviata.
It’s not the ideal way to prepare for a major opera production, but Vitali has little choice.
Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday from Ukraine, the star said he’s awaiting permission from the Ukrainian culture minister to make the trip, but expects it to arrive this week.
‘I think the government is quite busy at the moment,’ he says.
‘But they have given me permission to leave to sing in Italy since the war started and they have indicated I will be able to go to Dublin, too. I am looking forward to it.’
Power blackouts caused by the Russian invasion have caused havoc for the citizens of the port city where Bilyi has lived since childhood, but he is philosophical about the hardships.
‘My tool of work is just my voice, it is not hard for me to practise in the dark with someone on piano,’ he told the MoS. ‘But I have a young family.
‘My youngest child is just four and, of course, I worry about the coming winter and how we will keep warm. But I know, as do all
Ukrainians, that we cannot surrender to Putin because if we do, he will never stop.’
In happier times, Bilyi performed at the world’s most famous opera houses, including La Scala in Milan, The Met in New York, London’s Convent Garden and the Opera Bastille in Paris. He was born in the USSR before his parents moved back to their native Ukraine, and has spent 15 of the past 20 years singing in Russia, including at the Bolshoi in Moscow, where he had many friends.
‘I met many Russians over the years, who were my friends, who regularly came to my apartment, ate with me and loved me like a brother, I thought,’ he added.
‘But since the war, just one of those people contacted me. feel so sad about that, I have to say it.
‘The man who did contact me rang me at 3am and he said to me, “I am so sorry about what is going on, it is wrong” and he talked like that for a long time.
‘I do remember my parents and my grandparents saying that people could not speak openly in Russia in the days of the USSR.
‘They could be taken away and never heard from again if they spoke out and maybe Russia has gone back to those times again.’ ■ La Traviata runs at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre from November 15 to November 19 .