Odesa Opera presents the VI International Arts Festival “Velvet Season”

For the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence, the Odesa Opera is gathering the best Ukrainian singers from Ukraine and Europe.

From August 22 to September 15, 2021, the Odessa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet will host the Arts Festival “Velvet Season at the Odessa Opera” for the sixth time. This is one of the largest and most popular opera and ballet festivals in southern Ukraine, dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Independence.

For the opening concert “Ukraine – the World”, the chief conductor of the theater, music director of the project Vyacheslav Chernukho-Volich will gather the best Ukrainian singers working in Ukraine and in European countries, as well as invited guests from the Republic of Moldova, the Republic of Belarus, Latvia and the Czech Republic . In particular, honored artists of Ukraine Ihor Shavruk and Ihor Chernetskyi, laureates of international competitions Margarita Hrynyvetska and Vitaly Kovalchuk will take the stage.

The second event will be the Classic & Modern ballet gala concert “Odesa. Ukraine. Europe” plain sky on Teatralny Maidan. The audience will be presented fragments from the most popular classical ballets, modern ballet compositions to the music of Ukrainian composers and the grand premiere of Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero” staged by Georgy Kovtun with the participation of the stars of the Odessa Ballet and invited world-renowned ballet performers.

The final project of the festival will be “Ark Ukraine: Music” conducted by the world-famous conductor, invited chief conductor of ONATOB Oksana Lyniv (Ukraine, Germany, Austria). This is a unique program in which the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine/YsOU, the Dudaryk Men’s Choral Chapel, the Chamber Girls’ Choir of the KDML named after Lysenko, ethno-groups “DahaBrakha”, “Horeya Kozatska”, “KURBASY”, soloists – Dominika Chekun, Ulyana Gorbachevska, Oksana Nikityuk, Nazar Tatsyshyn.

“Preparing such a powerful musical forum less than a month after the start of the new 212th season is a great responsibility and an incredible effort by the entire team of the theater, which seems to have turned on additional momentum. I am sure that we managed to make a very interesting program that will attract the attention of a wide range of connoisseurs of theater, opera and ballet art and will open up new facets of the national and world artistic heritage and modern music and theater art,” says the general director-artistic director of the theater, Nadiya Babich.