ANNOUNCEMENT

BRIEF TOPIC: Promotion of the opera Creonte, rediscovered during the full-scale war, by the Ukrainian genius Dmytro Bortniansky on leading European stages as an essential component of the cultural diplomacy of a Ukraine at war.

On January 13, 2026, at 12:00, a round table will take place on the topic:
“Ukrainian European musical tradition, integration and cooperation with European opera houses. How possible and how necessary is this right now? Promotion of the opera Creonte, rediscovered during the full-scale war, by the Ukrainian genius Dmytro Bortniansky on leading European stages as an essential component of the cultural diplomacy of a Ukraine at war. Can an opera whose first staging has already resonated in Europe help restore the European trajectory of Ukrainian classical music and become a significant asset of Europe’s cultural heritage?”
 
Organizers: the team behind the international project promoting the opera Creonte by the Ukrainian genius Dmytro Bortniansky as part of Ukraine’s cultural heritage.
 
Invited participants include contributors to the project “Returning to the World the First Opera by Dmytro Bortniansky, Creonte”, as well as state and public figures from Ukraine, Austria, France, the United Kingdom, Poland, and other countries.

Speakers include:
Herman Makarenko, project author, UNESCO Artist for Peace, conductor of the National Opera of Ukraine
Ernesto Ottone, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture (online)
Serhii Cherevatyi, Director General of Ukrinform
Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović, Secretary General of Europa Nostra
Ivan Butniak, Director and Artistic Director of the Olha Kobylianska Chernivtsi Academic Regional Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater
Olha Shumilina, scholar, Doctor of Art History
Stephan Burianek, Founding Publisher of OPERN∙NEWS
Marcel Raymond Theroux, Anglo-American writer and television presenter, and others.
 
Moderator: Liubov Baziv, Head of Strategic Communications Department, Ukrinform.
 
In brief: We announce the launch of an important international project to promote the opera Creonte by the Ukrainian genius Bortniansky on the stages of opera houses in Europe’s capitals. The opera was first staged in Ukraine, and this major effort by Ukrainian musicians, performers, cultural heritage researchers, cultural figures, and opinion leaders, which lasted more than two years, has already generated significant resonance across Europe.
 
Today, our shared European cultural tradition must confidently step onto the global stage. It is symbolic that a work by the genius Dmytro Bortniansky will become an ambassador of Ukrainian culture. This is a classical opera about freedom and resistance to tyranny, a work the composer effectively concealed from the authorities of the russian empire. The score lay for several centuries in a European library and was rediscovered at the height of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine by the scholar and Doctor of Art History Olha Shumilina. It was later staged in Ukraine under the patronage of UNESCO by a creative team led by UNESCO Artist for Peace, conductor of the National Opera of Ukraine Herman Makarenko.
 
We are receiving strong feedback and keen interest from colleagues at European theatres in creating a large-scale joint musical project. This represents a unique opportunity to integrate Ukrainian culture into the European context and to rediscover our shared cultural tradition.
 
Discussion questions:
How should Ukrainian cultural heritage be promoted in Europe?
Is this a competition for the attention of European audiences and listeners?
Do cultural projects on the international stage matter during wartime, and what exactly must we communicate to the world?
Why has Russia once again attempted to appropriate the genius of Bortniansky precisely now, in the midst of the war?
 
Background information. The first opera by the Ukrainian composer Dmytro Bortniansky, Creonte, was considered lost for almost two and a half centuries. The manuscript was discovered by musicologist Olha Shumilina in the archive of the Ajuda Library in Lisbon. In November 2024, the opera was presented to the world for the first time in a concert performance at the hall of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
 
The opera Creonte was written by the 25-year-old composer and premiered in Venice in 1776. The young Ukrainian artist was mentored by the Italian maestro Baldassare Galuppi. The libretto by Marco Coltellini is based on a tragedy by Sophocles. The premiere took place at the Teatro San Benedetto, and further productions in other European countries were planned, however for unknown reasons the score disappeared for almost 250 years.
 
In October 2025, the world stage premiere of Dmytro Bortniansky’s opera Creonte took place at the Olha Kobylianska Chernivtsi Academic Regional Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater. As the organizers explained ahead of the event, Chernivtsi was chosen deliberately, as the theatre recreates the atmosphere of the Venetian theatre where the work was first performed in 1776. The premiere in Chernivtsi was conducted by People’s Artist of Ukraine Herman Makarenko.
 
Event format: offline, Hall 2.
 
Journalists will be able to ask questions in person, Hall 2.
 
Media accreditation: evropressa@gmail.com, +380(96)617-90-97 (WhatsApp, Telegram).
 
The event will be streamed on the Ukrinform website and its YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@UkrinformPressCenter
 
Ukrinform address: Kyiv, 8/16 Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Street.
 
Any use of materials from the official Ukrinform YouTube channel is permitted only in compliance with the copyright rules established by the channel. When broadcasting video during a live program, it is mandatory to credit the author — Ukrinform — display its name on screen, and mention it verbally.