This is a list of

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

singers from

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, including ethnic

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

and people of other ethnicities. This list includes those who were born in Ukraine/Soviet Union/Poland but later emigrated, and those, who were born elsewhere but immigrated to the country and performed there for a long time. Opera came to the Russian Empire in the 18th century. At first there were mostly Italian-language operas presented by

Italian opera Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous ope ...

troupes. Later some Ukrainian composers serving to the Russian Imperial Court such as

Dmitry Bortniansky Dmitry Stepanovich Bortniansky (28 October 1751 – ) was a Russian composer of Ukrainian Cossack origin. He was also a harpsichordist and conductor who served at the court of Catherine the Great. Bortniansky was critical to the musical hist ...

and

Maksym Berezovsky Maxim Sozontovich Berezovsky ( ; ; ) was a composer of secular and liturgical music, and a conductor and opera singer, who worked at the Saint Petersburg Court Chapel in the Russian Empire, but who also spent much of his career in Italy. He m ...

began to write operas in French and Italian. Composers in the 19th century included

Semen Hulak-Artemovsky Semen Stepanovych Hulak-Artemovsky (, also referred to as Semyon Gulak-Artemovsky and Artemovs’kyj) ( – ), was an opera composer, baritone, actor, dramatist and pioneer of Ukrainian theatre who worked in Imperial Russia. He is known mainly ...

Mykola Lysenko Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko (; 22 March 1842 – 6 November 1912) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist of the late Romantic period. In his time he was the central figure of Ukrainian music, with an ''oeuvre'' tha ...

, and

Mykhailo Verbytsky Mykhailo Mykhailovych Verbytskyi ( ; March 4, 1815 – December 7, 1870), also anglicized as Michael Werbitzky, was a Ukrainian composer and a priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. He is considered to be one of the first professiona ...

. Their traditions were carried on to the 20th century by

Yuliy Meitus Yuliy Serhiyovych Meitus (; 28 January 1903, Yelysavethrad – 2 April 1997, Kyiv), was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer, considered the founder of the Ukrainian Soviet opera. His early style was modernistic, later he used more traditional neo-R ...

Heorhiy Maiboroda Heorhiy Ilarionovych Maiboroda (6 December 1992) was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer. People's Artist of the USSR (1960). Maiboroda, whose brother Platon Maiboroda was also a composer (mainly of songs), studied at the Glière College of Music ...

Stanyslav Lyudkevych Stanyslav Pylypovych Lyudkevych (, ; 24 January 1879 – 10 September 1979) was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer, theorist, teacher, and musical activist. People's Artist of the USSR (1969) and Hero of Socialist Labour (1979). His name may altern ...

and Oleksandr Bilash. The

Kyiv Opera The Kyiv Opera group in Ukraine was formally established in the summer of 1867, and is the third oldest opera in Ukraine, after Odesa Opera and Lviv Opera. The Kyiv Opera Company perform Kyiv Opera House, named after Taras Shevchenko. H ...

Theatre continues to be the main opera and ballet venue of Ukraine. A number of Ukrainian opera singers rose to fame already in the 19th century, but it was the 20th centuries that saw the appearance of many world-renowned, well-remembered and still popular soloists.

List

A–L

Renata Babak Renata Babak (February 4, 1934 in Kharkiv, Ukraine – December 31, 2003 in Silver Spring, Maryland) was a Ukrainian mezzo-soprano who defected to America from the Bolshoi Opera in 1973. Lena Belkina Lena Belkina or Olena Leser (born 27 November 1987) is a Ukrainian mezzo-soprano. Career Belkina studied at the Kyiv and Leipzig conservatories. From 2009 to 2012, she was a member of the Leipzig Opera, where she worked with P. Konwitschny in ...

* Olga Bezsmertna * Andrei Bondarenko *

Andrij Dobriansky Andrij Dobriansky (; September 2, 1930February 1, 2012) was a principal artist with the Metropolitan Opera for 30 years where he sang over 60 roles in over 900 performances. As a displaced person in Allied-occupied Germany, post-war Germany, he ea ...

Oksana Dyka Oksana Dyka ( ; born 16 June 1978, in Zhytomyr), also rendered as Dika, is a Ukrainian operatic soprano. Career Dyka graduated in 2004 at the Kyiv Conservatory and sang as a soloist at the Kyiv Opera from 2003 until 2007. She won the 2003 Marsei ...

Zoia Gaidai Zoia Mykhailivna Gaidai (April 21, 1965) was a Soviet and Ukrainian opera soprano. She was an artist of wide creativity, with a bright vocal range and talent who staged more than 50 musicals of the works of Ukrainian and Russian composers, as ...

Borys Hmyria Borys Romanovych Hmyria (August 1, 1969) PAU, was a Ukrainian and Soviet bass singer of opera and art song. Biography Hmyria was born in 1903 in Lebedin, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire (today part of Ukraine). He remained in Poltava d ...

Dmytro Hnatyuk Dmytro Mykhailovych Hnatyuk (28 March 192529 April 2016) was a Soviet and Ukrainian baritone opera singer and a former member of the Ukrainian Parliament. Biography Dmytro Hnatyuk was born on 28 March 1925 in the village of Mămăești, Sipe ...

* Kateryna Kasper * Taras Konoshchenko * Mykola Koval * Andriy Kikot *

Alexander Kipnis Alexander Kipnis ( – May 14, 1978) was a Russian and American bass singer. Having initially established his artistic reputation in Europe, Kipnis became an American citizen in 1931, following his marriage to an American. He appeared often at ...

Ivan Kozlovsky Ivan Semyonovich Kozlovsky (21 December 1993) was a Soviet lyric tenor and one of the most well known stars of Russian opera, as well a producer and director of his own opera company, and longtime teacher at the Moscow Conservatory. People' ...

Solomiya Krushelnytska Solomiya KrushelnytskaHer name is sometimes spelt as Solomiya Ambrosiyivna Krushelnytska, Salomea Krusceniski, Krushel'nytska or Kruszelnicka. (; – November 16, 1952) was a Ukrainian lyric-dramatic soprano, considered to be one of the bright ...

* Victoria Loukianetz

M–Z

File:Olga-mykytenko.jpg, Olga Mykytenko 2012 File:Mark Reizen 1.jpg, Mark Reizen File:Anatoliy Solovianenko - Soviet Life, October 1984.jpg, Anatoliy Solovianenko, 1984 File:Fedor stravinsky.jpg, Fyodor Stravinsky *

Yuri Mazurok Yuri Antonovich Mazurok (; 18 July 1931, Kraśnik – 1 April 2006, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian operatic baritone of Polish ethnicity. He sang leading roles with major opera houses internationally, including the Bolshoi Theatre, where he ...

Ira Malaniuk Ira Malaniuk (; ''Iryna Malanyuk''; 29 January 1919 – 25 February 2009) was an Austrian operatic Mezzo-soprano of Ukrainian descent. She sang a wide range of roles, from Mozart to contemporary works. Life Malaniuk was born in Stanysla ...

* Evgeniya Miroshnichenko *

Liudmyla Monastyrska Liudmyla Viktorivna Monastyrska () is a Ukrainian spinto soprano. Early life and career Born in Irkliiv, Cherkasy Oblast, she studied at the R. Glier Kyiv Institute of Music and Kyiv Conservatory. Monastyrska made her debut with the Ukraine ...

* Nataliya Oleksandrivna Mykhaylovska *

Olga Mykytenko Olga Mykytenko () is a Ukrainian and German soprano opera singer. Biography Born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, Olga Mykytenko made her debut as a soloist in 1995 at the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv and performed there through 2003. She won severa ...

* Vyacheslav Polozov * Misha Raitzin *

Mark Reizen Mark Osipovich Reizen (, – 25 November 1992) was a leading Soviet opera bass singer and pedagogue. People's Artist of the USSR (1937). Life and career Reizen was born into a Jewish family of mine workers in 1895 at Zaitsevo village in ...

* Lyudmila Shirina *

Maria Sokil Maria Ivanivna Sokil (Rudnytsky) (October 18, 1902 – January 20, 1999) was a Ukrainian opera singer. Biography Sokil was born in the village of Zherebets' (now Tavriiske) in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast on October 18, 1902. She studied at ...

Anatoliy Solovianenko Anatoliy Borysovych Solovianenko (; ; 25 September 1932 – 29 July 1999) was a Ukrainian operatic tenor, People's Artist of the USSR (1975), People's Artist of Ukraine, and Shevchenko National Prize winner. He was born into a mining family in ...

Mariia Stefiuk Mariia Yuryivna Stefiuk (; born 16 July 1948) is a Ukrainian opera singer and music teacher who has been associated with the National Opera of Ukraine and the Petro Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine. She began her career as a traine ...

Fyodor Stravinsky Fyodor Ignatyevich Stravinsky () (, estate Novy Dvor (Aleksichi), Rechitsky Uyezd, Minsk Governorate ) was a Russian bass opera singer and actor. He was the father of Igor Stravinsky and the grandfather of Théodore Strawinsky and Soulima Stra ...

(1843–1902) * Irena Turkevycz-Martynec

External links

*{{Commons category-inline, Opera vocalists from Ukraine

Opera singers Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

Ukrainian Singers Ukrainian Ukrainian