Personal Writings of Memoir Nature of Ukrainian Vocal Artists of 1950s–1970s in the Context of the Development of National Culture

Abstract

The research paper explores the personal texts of Ukrainian vocal artists of the second half of the twentieth century as written cultural and historical sources that reflect personal perceptions of events, recording them subjectively in various forms of artistic and figurative generalizations (letters, memoirs, diaries, interviews, etc.). The texts by Ukrainian vocal artists of the 1950s–1970s— Borys Hmyria, Bohdan Hnyd, Lilia Lobanova, Yevhenia Miroshnychenko, Kostiantyn Ohnievoi, and Klavdia Radchenko—expand the current understanding of the vocal and performing details of their professional activity. The diaries of L. Lobanova and K. Radchenko significantly complement the picture of their vocal and performing activities. B. Hnyd’s memoirs, based on diary entries and edited in the late 1990s, also provide a deeper insight into the causes and consequences of dramatic socio-cultural events of the 1970s in the country’sleading opera company. For the sake of completeness and objectivity, the memoir texts of other participants and witnesses of these cultural and artistic events were quoted. Analyzed methodological approaches to the personal texts of memoir nature of Ukrainian opera artists of the 1950s–1970s ensure the study of these texts with regard to the features of historical cultural process. This enables the researcher to reconstruct previously unknown or little-known processes of cultural development of the era and to form an unbiased vision of the cultural and artistic institutions (in particular, of the Kyiv Opera).