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What Next - The Russians Invaded. The Opera Played On.

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Slate

Business, News, Society & Culture

3.91.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 July 2022

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Persistent Russian missile strikes since February and an ongoing blockade have silenced Odesa’s normally busy port—but not its 19th century opera house. Performances now end with a singing of the Ukrainian national anthem.


Guest: Ekaterina Tsymbalyuk, a soloist at the Odesa Opera.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:26.4

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0:36.7

Katya Rina Simba-Yuk always knew she wanted to be a musician since she was in kindergarten,

0:42.4

but Katya, that's what her friends call her, she grew up in Western Ukraine. When she was a kid,

0:48.4

the country had just become independent, and that made getting access to her preferred instrument,

0:54.4

the piano, almost impossible. Most people didn't have money, and my mom actually didn't have money

1:02.9

for buying piano for me, and she said, please, Katya, because a lot of children, you know,

1:08.4

like children, oh today I want tomorrow, I don't want, I change my mind, and oh yeah, I have kids,

1:14.0

I know. Yeah, please, and I said no mom, I promise you, I will never change my mind, and she did it for me.

1:25.3

And I remember, I really remember this moment when I, when four guys was taking this piano on

1:34.7

first floor, and my mom was watching it, and I was kissing my mom's arms, because I was so happy,

1:42.1

and I said, mom, I'm so grateful, thank you so, so much, and she was, okay, I will see, I will see

1:48.8

how you will practice, and so I never, after that, I didn't even have a thought to quit

1:57.5

music school, never. In music school, Katya picked up singing, she had a rock band at 16,

2:08.0

but then she fell in love with opera. Now she performs out of a 19th century theater in Odessa.

2:14.5

This opera house, it looks straight out of a fairy tale. It's got lots of red velvet,

2:20.0

Rococo wall panels covered in gold leaf. Oh, it's the most beautiful place, I think, in our

2:27.7

city, and it's really, it's one of the most beautiful, beautiful opera theaters in the world.

2:34.0

Musicians like Katya, they care so much about this place, that when Russia invaded earlier this year,

...

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