Met Opera marks 1st year of Ukraine war with concert

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “Although an opera house doesn’t have the offensive capacity of an Abrams tank or an F-16 jet, the Metropolitan Opera is proud to be a powerful cultural resource for Ukraine, helping to lead the fight for artistic liberty against Putin’s cultural propaganda machine,” Met general manager Peter Gelb told an intermission group that included U.N. Ambassadors Sergiy Kyslytsya of Ukraine and Linda Thomas-Greenfield of the U.S. “We demonstrate the free world’s ongoing cultural resolve to defend Ukraine’s liberty in the face of brutal oppression.” Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted what was titled “For Ukraine: A Concert of Remembrance and Hope,” that also featured Ukrainian tenor Dmytro Popov and bass-baritone Vladyslav Buialskyi and South African soprano Golda Schultz. 5 and ended with Valentin Silvestrov’ hymn “Prayer for Ukraine.” “The Metropolitan Opera,” Kyslytsya said, “adopted Ukrainian culture, adopted me, adopted my mission.” Ukraine First Lady Olena Zelenska addressed the crowd at the start of the evening in a prerecorded video speech. “I feel sorry that he like many other Russians are so misinformed and don’t really understand what’s going on in the world.” The Met has hired four interns from Ukraine and Gelb plans to add Ukrainian composers to the Met’s commissioning program.