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and create such imaginative sets and lighting effects that the visuals alone will capture the audience. Secondly, the stories are riveting. Third, because the opera will be sung in Ukrainian, the audience will be in tune with both the score and the lyrics. How is the project being funded? A fund drive has been launched among Ukrainian- American foundations, and the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America is one of the co sponsors of the project. Most of the support so far has come from Mr. Julian Kulas and the Heritage Foundation and many concerned private individuals. Several Credit Unions have also contributed. You mentioned discussing the project in some details with UNWLA President Iryna Kurowyc- kyj. Why is she interested in this? Iryna has been very supportive. She believes in the idea behind the project—that it is not just about opera but about language. In other words, it is a project that has the potential to make the Ukrainian language more fashionable, more widely accepted. It is also a way to demonstrate the beauty of the language non-aggressively, through entertainment. The most important thing is that the Ukrainian artists we are working with will see by our actions that the Ukrainian diaspora and American profes sionals sincerely want to help. And they will realize that this help is not coming from St. Petersburg or Moscow. Isn't that important enough? And what happens next? I am trying to find enough support to publish the translations in first edition piano-vocal scores. I would also love to gather all the opera and operetta translations Maksym Rylsky and other great poets did in the past and publish them. I would love to have our project be the start of a trend towards more translations of standard operas that have not been staged yet in Ukraine. I would love to translate and help produce more operas for different opera theaters in Ukraine each year. And I already have a wish list of some spectacular works that would work very, very well. Tax deductible contributions for the Dnipropetrovsk opera project should be forwarded to the UNWLA, Inc., 203 Second Avenue, New York, NY, 10003. A Shelf A yellow shelf I dreamed of, set above, The kitchen in the old home of my birth, As distant and as tender as the love I've carried in my roamings round the earth. And unmistakably I do recall The graining of the word, the figured blots, And on its doors, infallible though small, Over to leftward were two varnished knots. One of those knots was very like a bird; For many years it wanted to fall out And yet was caught there: for it m ust have heard Its partner's strong encouragement, no doubt. The other knot was like an ancient man: The nose, the curling whiskers, and the beard To me were silent lessons that the world might scan; no word of argument was ever feared. And from the shelf came whiffs of cinnamon, Of lemons, coffee, and antiquity, The mysteries of Java and Ceylon Out of unfathomed depths to speak to me. All things and everything, it seemed, were there: Preserves, my childhood dreams, the samovar, Myself ensconced nearby upon a chair With tattered volumes of Gustav Aimard. Behind the window pane two poplars stood, Which Antonovych once had planted deep. And there were home-made pistols, formed of wood, Yasko my friend, had given me to keep. And mother's chidings threatening me with woes, rendered unlikely by her kindly face. All that to me was ordinary prose More precious than all poems of this race. Maksym Rylsky (1895-1964). Translation from C.H. Andrusyshyn and Watson Kirkconnell. The Ukrainian Poets, University of Toronto Press, 1963.
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