Fidelio helps where martens are missing
View of the war-damaged interior of the Mariupol Theater
Source: Alexei Alexandrov/AP/dpa
Germany has been criticized for its political and military support for Ukraine in the war against the aggressor Russia. The German cultural scene, however, cannot be blamed for anything. And now shows a clear edge.
AApproach through recognition. That was one of the guiding principles of cultural policy during the Cold War. Knowledge about each other should develop – as a soft means of bilateral diplomacy in the exchange between political camps. That worked until the fall of the Iron Curtain opened the floodgates. Now you could see, hear and experience everything that had previously been locked behind borders. Theoretically.
But what have we learned about Ukraine since then? Frighteningly little. But Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression suddenly makes an accelerated exchange of knowledge possible – especially in the area of the supposedly good, true and beautiful.
Now we know, for example, how deeply Ukraine has woven itself into the life and work of Peter Tchaikovsky – precisely because the Russians just shot up one of his central memorials and the St. Gallen Festival absurdly stupidly just his opera based on Schiller’s “Jungfrau von Orléans”. replaced by the much worse Verdi variant.
But Putin’s bomb terror allows the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, as the proud “Voice of Ukraine”, to embark on a quickly organized solidarity European tour, which will also take them through the most prestigious German halls from the Berlin to the Elbphilharmonie until May 1st.
The male members, who are actually not allowed to leave the country, have a special permit. And we get to hear music by Maksym Berezovsky (1745-1777), Borys Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968) and Myroslav Skoryk (1938-2020).
On May 4th, the State Theater of Meiningen, which is steeped in history and once touring all of Europe with its productions of the theater duke Georg II.
The production had its premiere shortly before the outbreak of war. Director Andrey Maslakov moves the action to the time of the Stalinist dictatorship. The equipment is currently being brought to Meiningen with returning aid convoys from the Ukrainian-Romanian border. And at the end it could also say: “F… you, Putin!”