“Where disappeared the golden days of my spring?”
The beginning of Lensk's aria resonated with shocking sad news when it was heard by the Russian opposition leader at the National Opera To Alexei Navalny on the day of death.
Where did the hopes for democracy and freedom of speech awakened by the collapse of Soviet power disappear?
Why did the spring of our eastern neighbor change to the “deep darkness” mentioned in the aria?
Lensk's aria are the most famous points Pyotr Tchaikovsky from the opera Yevgeny Onegin.
The poet Lenski sings it while preparing for a duel against his former friend Onegin.
He considers his own death likely, but does not run away from the situation.
It compares to Navalny's duel with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin against.
Navalny was poisoned, but after recovering, he bravely returned to Russia in January 2021.
On Friday of last week, his life ended in a Siberian prison. At the same time, he created immortality for himself as a person who wasn't afraid of anything.
Navalny had his imperialist phase just like Tchaikovsky.
Solomon Volkov evaluate Peter– in his work, that despite his Ukrainian roots, the young Tchaikovsky was of Alexander III and a supporter of this line that russifies minority peoples.
This was reflected In a Slavic march, 1812 at the opening and in the finales of the first symphonies, which Volkov felt were hymns to the emperor – even when the composer used Ukrainian folk songs.
Tchaikovsky developed. Later symphonies and operas exude empathy towards fellow sufferers in our valley of sorrow.
Navalny also changed. He regretted his brief flirtation with racists and extreme nationalists.
At the same time, he condemned the corruption of Putin's regime, the restrictions on freedom of speech and the major attack against Ukraine.
On the evacuation trip from Kyiv on March 2, 2022: Matvei and Jefrosinia Medvetski in the back seat, their mother Žanna Pastušenko in the driver's seat.
On Saturday On February 24, 2022, exactly two years ago, Russia's major invasion of Ukraine began as a continuation of eight years of hostilities.
We were just then in Mariupol, Ukraine on business HS's photojournalist Kalle Koponen with. That also came to mind when I was listening to the opera.
Putin had chosen the path of destruction.
Ukrainian Yurij Samoilov was Yevgeny Onegin and Lithuanian Aistė Piliba sang the role of Tatiana in the National Opera's performance on the day of Alexei Navalny's death.
The National Opera the Ukrainian-Armenian-Finnish occupation was seen in the main roles.
Right now I'd rather listen to Ukrainian operas, but the Russian leadership can't own Tchaikovsky any more than Nazi Germany did Beethoven.
That's why in the West, after consideration, it has mostly been decided that Russian classics can be performed during the Great Attack as well.
Yevgeny Onegin in the last act, Onegin, who lived in a cynical coldness, realizes the meaning of love – too late.
“Happiness was once so close”, the show sings.
After Navalny's death, happiness is further and further away.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have experienced death or wounding, and even more have experienced the pain caused by the death of a loved one.
Tatjana (this time from Lithuania, Aistė Piliba) of the Eugene Onegin opera chooses the protection of the old ruler, who is considered safer, instead of the charismatic and unstable Onegin.
The presentation afterwards I thought about the power of music.
Such experiences bring comfort and energy. That's why art is important also and especially when the world appears at its darkest and most distorted.
And that's exactly why Ukraine cherishes their culture even as the defensive battle continues.
The Russians destroyed Borodyanka north of Kiev and shot holes in the statue of Taras Shevchenko, the national poet of Ukraine. Now the city is being rebuilt.
Professor Oleksandr Molodid (right) and his colleague Ivan Musyjaka did a condition survey of Banksy's murals at the ruins of Borodjanka in December 2022.
“Tomorrow whatever the day brings / My eyes cannot see it / The future is veiled.”
This is how Lenski's aria is sung at the beginning in the Finnish translation.
From the veiled future, right now in the eastern neighbor we can only expect a continuation of the bloody big attack.
At the same time, the attacker's terror also extends to Russia's own citizens. Hundreds of Russians are sentenced every month, even for mere peacefulness, with the laws established at the beginning of the invasion by laws.
Still, there is hope for the darkness to recede in Alexei Navalny.
The same hope is now reflected in thousands of Russians who even with the acceleration of arrests have dared to bring flowers in honor of Navalny's memory, for example to the memorial to the victims of political persecution.
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The lines of Lenski's aria also come to mind, according to which the darkness can finally dissipate.
The sea of flowers in memory of Alexei Navalny at the monument to the victims of political persecution in Moscow has already been removed by the authorities many times. There are still enough brave rememberers.
I flew aaria made me think about the poet as if in the role of Ukraine and Onegin as a coldly cynical Russia.
In this opera, things go badly for Lenski, who was shot, and eventually also for Onegin, who shot him, who in the moment of his “victory” destroys his own soul.
The situation is disastrous in real life as well. Ukraine has been left to suffer from a shortage of ammunition. This week, after a long time, Russia managed to occupy an additional area, ie of the small town of Avdijivka ruins in eastern Ukraine.
At the same time, the occupier has lost his soul just like Onegin. There really are only the cold face of war.
An example of the shelling damage suffered by the town of Avdijika in eastern Ukraine on February 15. Russia now says it has occupied the city.
Putin will soon be 72 years old. In his life, he has caused and still causes unspeakable destruction.
But after two years of a major offensive, he is nowhere close to occupying key Ukrainian cities such as Kiev, Odessa, or even Kharkiv, near the Russian border.
That's why the lines of Lenski's aria also come to mind, according to which the darkness can finally disappear when “the ray of the morning star flashes and the bright day shines”.
Another opposition influencer Vladimir Kara-Murza – he also survived poisoning a couple of times and is now in prison – echoes the same idea: “the day will come when the darkness will disappear from our land”.
When it finally happens, according to him, it can happen”very quickly”.
Then the oppressive apparatus that decided on the big attack will give way. And there is a chance for peace again.
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