Despite this explosion of musical beauty, it is impossible to forget that image of brutality that the war in Ukraine represents, the dead, the wounded, the destruction, the kidnapped children, the displaced, like these two women who cannot help but shed tears before the demonstrations of solidarity on the first balcony of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
“We managed to reach the United States on March 18, we escaped from the bombs,” said the youngest. "Our family is safe there, or so we think, but tonight is very special, we cannot forget all those who are suffering." Another viewer asked them, are you okay here? "Yes, we have been well received, but we would prefer to be at home," the other, older woman responded excitedly.
This is the night in which, with a full house in the nearly 4,000 seats of one of the main lyrical theaters in the world, the Met commemorated the first anniversary of the war unleashed by Russia. On a stage presided over by the yellow and blue colors of a giant Ukrainian flag, the first standing ovation did not go to the musicians. It was taken by First Lady Olena Zelenska who addressed the public in a videotaped message to underscore "a year of heroism and sacrifice."
"You have shown that art can literally help and save," he said. "I hope that it is on this stage that we can soon celebrate the victory of humanity, of art, of Ukraine, it will be our common victory," concluded the message from him speaking in Ukrainian, the most common language in this New York evening.
Under the title 'For Ukraine, a concert of memory and hope', the tribute started with the anthem of the European country, with all attendees standing up. Among the spectators in the presidential box were the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya; his colleague from the United States, Linda Greenfield Thomas; or the high representative of Foreign Affairs of the European Union, Josep Borrell.
The program featured the Met orchestra and choir, as well as soprano Golda Schultz, mezzo sopranno Emily D'Angleo (she wore a dress with 365 small pieces, one for each day of the war), tenor Dmytro Popov and the bass baritone Valdyslav Buialskyi, both of Ukrainian origin.
The central part was made up of two pieces with a high symbolic weight, explained Peter Gelb, general director of the Met. On the one hand, Mozart's 'Requiem', “in honor and memory of the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who have given their lives in devotion to the freedom of their nation, as well as the thousands of citizens who have been killed, wounded, displaced and deprived by repeated Russian attacks on residential areas and civilian infrastructure," he said.
The somber character of this work, which depicts the tenor of the battle, gave way to Beethoven's 'Fifth Symphony,' as "a rousing hymn for the victory to come," Gelb said. It was a way to revive a tradition that the Allies took up during World War II, he said.
The interpretation of the Fifth was electrifying, a psychic blow. Yannick Nézet-Séguin's conduction endowed the piece with enormous energy, especially at the beginning and in its last movement, which provoked a huge ovation.
The session closed with 'Prayer for Ukraine', by Valentin Silvestrov, which the 71 voices of the Met Choir made the room fill with emotion. Say the prayer, “lord protect us, give us strength, faith and hope”.
At the time of the ovations, the singers Popov and Buialskyi came out to receive the applause wrapped in Ukrainian flags. The same one that colored the entire façade of the magnificent Metropolitan Opera building. For Ukraine and peace.
