Solomea - book by Andy J. Semotiuk

As a professor of theater, a voice coach who has worked with major theaters and drama schools in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Netherlands, and someone who has worked with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the English Opera Group, I found Mr. Semotiuk's biography of Solomea Krushelnytska as an opera star insightful, inspiring, and fascinating. It is wonderful that he has taken the effort to remind the opera world of one of its great female talents who reigned in the golden age of opera along with other greats like Enrico Caruso, Arturo Toscanini, and Giacomo Puccini. We are guided through her childhood, her adolescent struggles, her journey to her international career, her having to deal with the destructive impact of the Italian Fascists, and then the devastating impact of the German/Russian war. This is a deep and captivating story.

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As an opera singer who has sung in many of the most prestigious opera houses of the world, including in Paris, Vienna, Munich, Florence, Amsterdam, Madrid, Moscow, London, Salzburg, Rome, Berlin, and Toronto; with some of the greatest conductors including Claudio Abbado, Jeffrey Tate, Semion Bychkov, and Zubin Mehta; involving Bass-Baritone roles in German, French, Italian and Russian repertoires, and myself being of Ukrainian descent, I feel a strong affinity to Solomea Krushelnytska, Ukraine's greatest opera star. She also performed in some of the great opera houses of her day in Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America, with opera legends like Giacomo Puccini, Arthur Toscanini, and Enrico Caruso, singing in roles as a dramatic soprano in some eight languages. She was truly one of the legends of opera and well worth our attention. I recommend this book as an authoritative account of Krushelnytska's life for anyone interested in music and in the opera world.

Available in USA on Amazon.com here

Available on Amazon elsewhere (click on your country)

Canada, U.K., Australia, Germany, Italy, France

Get the Audiobook in English here

Get the Ukrainian edition of the book here by typing the word “Соломія” into Amazon

Get the Ebook in Ukrainian on Kobo here

As an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia where I teach stage management in opera and theatre, I had a special interest in Andriy Semotiuk's book. Semotiuk gives us an authentic glimpse into the operatic world and tells the powerful life story of one of the great sopranos of opera's golden age. Not only is this book rich with research, but the story is also deeply personal for Semotiuk, making it engaging for the reader from cover to cover.

As the Director of the Solomia Krushelnytska Musical Memorial Museum in Lviv, Ukraine I am well aware of the story of Solomia's life and the hardships she endured to achieve international fame as Ukraine's leading opera star. Andriy Semotiuk's book is an authoritative account of Solomia's life and her role as the world's leading female opera star in the first decade of the 20th century during the golden years of opera. Our museum helped Semotiuk at every step of his journey in writing this book and we are proud of the accomplishment.

As the first female conductor at the Bayreuther Wagner opera festival; the first female conductor to be named music director of an Italian opera house, namely the Teatro Comunale di Bologna; someone who has conducted many of Puccini's operas, including Turandot at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma; and as a Ukrainian woman leader, I have a special interest in and an affinity for Solomea Krushelnytska, Ukraine's greatest opera star and marvelous interpreter of German and Italian operas. Krushelnytska’s outstanding artistic achievement is a great example of the Ukrainian contribution to world culture and serves as a significant model for me personally.
Andriy Semotiuk has written an extraordinary book laying out Krushelnytska's life story as she rose from humble beginnings to become a leading star on the opera stages of Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. Currently, at a time when Ukraine as a state is struggling to be recognized and must, especially culturally, manifest itself at the international level, the book is a much-anticipated English-language narrative about this outstanding Ukrainian artist and personality. I hope that by reading it, many people around the world will discover this great Ukrainian artist and her image as a singer and an outstanding woman will become an example for younger generations. This is a wonderful book, definitely worthy of time and reflection.