The Russians Invaded. The Opera Played On.
Mary Harris: Katarina Tsymbalyuk always knew she wanted to be a musician since she was in kindergarten. But Katya, that’s what our friends call her. She grew up in western Ukraine when she was a kid. The country had just become independent, and that made getting access to her preferred instrument, the piano, almost impossible.
Speaker 2: Mostly, people didn’t have money, and my mom actually didn’t have money for buying piano for me. And she said, Please, Katya, because a lot of children, you know, like children. Oh, today, I want tomorrow I don’t want I change my mind and. Oh, yeah.
Mary Harris: I have kids.
Speaker 2: I know. Yeah, please. And I said, No, Mom, I promise you, I will never change my mind. And she did it for me. And I remember I really remember this moment when I when foreign guys was taking this piano on fourth floor and my mom was watching it and I was kissing my mom’s arms because I was so happy. And I said, Mom, I’m so grateful. Thank you so, so much. And she was okay. I will see I will see how you will practice. And so I never after that, I didn’t even have a thought to quit music school and never.
Mary Harris: In music school, Katya picked up singing. She had a rock band at 16, but then she fell in love with opera. Now she performs out of a 19th century theatre in Odessa, this opera house. It looks straight out of a fairy tale. It’s got lots of red velvet rococo wall panels covered in gold leaf.
Speaker 2: Oh, it’s the most beautiful place, I think, in our city. And it’s really it’s one of the most beautiful, beautiful opera theatres in the world.
Mary Harris: Musicians like Katya, they care so much about this place that when Russia invaded earlier this year, orchestra members and singers filled sandbags and stacked them in front of the building, trying to protect it. Then they held outdoor concerts. You can still find these performances online. And this is a brass band dressed in camouflage. Playing. Don’t worry. Be happy with.
Speaker 3: The idea of him as our primary game boy.
Mary Harris: I believe this quartet is singing while they lean on antitank devices called hedgehogs.
Speaker 3: This love of my life is all about your voices. La la la la la la la la la la la la la la.
Speaker 2: To be honest, the first thing I thought, oh, my God, if they will destroy our opera house, I don’t know. I really I don’t even read so much about my apartment, my home. But I was afraid so much about our beautiful opera house. It’s a monument, very beautiful architecture. So I really hope that it will stay safe.
Mary Harris: Do you feel safe now? Like the opera house is safe? Like me. You’re safe.
Speaker 2: I feel more safe in Opera House because at least there a bomb shelter. Because here when I where I live, I don’t. I don’t have a bomb shelter close to my house. Maybe I have somewhere. But, you know, when you hear an alarm like three, five times a day and two, three times four nights, you cannot go all the time somewhere like escape. You cannot escape.
Mary Harris: So you feel safer in the opera house than you do at home?
Speaker 2: Yes. Yes, absolutely.
Mary Harris: Today on the show. While the war in Ukraine rages on, the music hasn’t stopped in Odessa. Performers like Katya are committed to bringing their opera house back. No matter what a mary Harris you’re listening to, what next? Stick around. When the war started, Katya was actually nowhere near Ukraine. She was in England on tour. She realized the invasion was happening. When she woke up one morning and saw another Ukrainian performer had broken down in tears.
Speaker 2: It was a girl from our orchestra. She was a musician. Usually when we are touring, we live in one hotel and we communicate to each other. And I just went out and I saw her crying and I asked what happened? And she said, some bad news from Ukraine. And everybody was shocked. Everybody. And you know, what is interesting with us was three people from Russia, by the way, and they felt, you know, it’s horrible feeling when you are ashamed because you are Russian, you are ashamed. And they really felt that.
Mary Harris: They said that to you.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yes, they said that. I’m so sorry. We cannot do anything.
Mary Harris: Katya kept working, kept touring, and then she got a call from the Odessa Opera in May. Russia was still actively bombing around the region, but her bosses wanted to put together a series of performances anyway.
Speaker 2: And they said, We are waiting for you. So come if you are not afraid. If you’re not afraid, we are opening and we are waiting for you. I said, Whoa, really? Oh, I cannot believe that. They said, Well, first we from the beginning, we will work online, maybe some online concerts on YouTube channels. Also, they were performing like online thanks to COVID. We already know how to do that.
Speaker 2: And also we had some concerts in different buildings. In church, Lutheran church, we call it architecture and also some museums and hospitals. We were performing for our wounded soldiers. So at least we started to work a little bit. And then when it was a resumption of performances, it was really great.
Mary Harris: Did you come back to Ukraine basically because your job was starting again?
Speaker 2: Yes, basically. Only to be honest. Only because of that, because opera theatre started to work. Otherwise, what would I do here, sitting at home and and and afraid that some missile will come to my house sooner or later? No, but when I. When I knew that opera house started to work. So, yes, it was the main for me. And then I decided, yes, I will go back because I want to work, because I want to be on the stage. I want to sing. And I and I actually I want to be at home, to be honest. I want to be at home. Everywhere we’re saying everywhere is good, but home is better despite anything.
Mary Harris: When you returned to Odessa. What did you find? I mean, you’d been away from your apartment for a number of months. In the space of that time. There had been more. So what was it like to walk back into your city? To walk back into your life?
Speaker 2: It changed. Of course, each change changed a lot. For example, there were a lot of traffic jams before. It was very crowded.
Mary Harris: It was a city.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes. Big, big city, of course. And and now it’s it’s not that crowded anymore. And very few people, even a few cars on because it’s also petrol a very expensive became and a lot of people just escape. So and not that crowded not a little more depressed maybe. But life still is going on here and people are working and people will try and even go to some restaurants, cafes, which is also nice because economics should work. I think it’s it’s normal. We should work to to help our army and to help our country to to survive in such a hard time. But, of course, it’s not that order as it was before. And specially for me. For me, it’s very hard that all our beaches are mined.
Mary Harris: Katia is referring to landmines here. A landmine killed a swimmer in Odessa back in June.
Speaker 2: We cannot enjoy our beautiful sea only on the little farm like not on the sand. So we cannot go on the sand. We cannot swim. And it’s so difficult because it in summer. Summer is such a great weather. So Russians stole our spring. They stole our summer. They stole everything.
Mary Harris: It’s just cruel because, you know, it’s a place people will be attracted to and want to go to enjoy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we had a lot of tourists and Odessa was making good money with that because a lot of tourists and people were renting there, renting out their apartments and and also economic was working and it was very good. And now, of course, we lose lose a lot.
Mary Harris: Yeah. You sing you performed for injured soldiers. That must have been emotional. What was that like?
Speaker 2: Oh, for me, it’s very difficult, to be honest. Very difficult because I saw such young guys sometimes they were very young, sometimes they were old enough. I don’t like this World War old. I say experienced. Some of them were very experienced. And it’s I don’t know, they are so great and we are proud, so much of them, they are great. They are our heroes. And it’s very it’s very hard for me as as a human just to see their suffering.
Speaker 2: But they are so great. They never, never show that they have some pain or something. They are so optimistic. You know, and the most interesting that despite anything what happened to them, they want to go and fight again. Even he has no arm because. No, he no leg or something. I don’t care. I will go again and I will fight and I will defend my and my country. So they are really great.
Speaker 2: And so it’s it’s a great experience for for us to to just to talk with them, just to to see them smile. If I, if I can make at least one of them to to smile and to have to feel some, some happy, at least for some moment, I, I will, I will really believe that I’m not existing here mainly.
Mary Harris: When we come back, the opera house reopens. Last month, the Odessa Opera decided to take one more step towards normalcy and open its doors to the public. The sandbags were still out front, but for the first time in months, the opera house was filled with music.
Speaker 3: The.
Mary Harris: Just keep in mind, even though the fighting seems to have cooled down around Odessa, air raid sirens are still pretty normal here. In fact, the opera had to limit the number of people in the audience to make sure each and every one of them could fit in the theatre’s bomb shelter and the performers. They’ve got their own separate shelter just in case.
Speaker 2: You know, we are musicians. We. We don’t know anything else. Well, I know something else. What to do? When it was college. I started to bake our bread. Yeah. Everybody found some. Some hobby, maybe some new profession. But still, it’s our life. It’s. We just cannot live without it. Without it. And if we can. If we can make somebody more happy with our music, with our art. So why not?
Mary Harris: When you walked into the Opera House knowing you’d be having a performance there. Can you just describe the feeling to me? Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh, I. Huh? I don’t know. Maybe it was a little bit like a little worry about how it will be, how it will be, how audience will react, how how everything will be, will be air alarm or not. Will people be safe or not? So it was like million thoughts in mind. But, you know, everything gone right away when I just went on the stage. It’s like a miracle on the stage. You forget about everything. And there is just me music and people in in in the hall and nothing. Nothing else. Ooh. Right. Put it on. You want to let the mood.
Mary Harris: It’s interesting to hear you describe that kind of ability to disassociate when you’re on stage and just do it because it’s like you’ve been trained to do it. It’s what you do. I feel like it’s a little bit like that for the audience too, where the lights go down and the stage lights come up and you can forget. And that’s part of the advantage of having the opera house open again, I’m sure.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah. Yeah. It was really feeling like everything is okay in our country, like. Like it was before. And we were so lucky that. No air alarms. No, no anything. Interrupted our performance, our concert. And so we we felt like everything is okay. And life is is good and beautiful music and beautiful opera house. And we are safe and everything is is good. And give us a hope that it will be that it will be like that.
Mary Harris: How regularly are you performing now?
Speaker 2: Um, not very often, but we are working on new production, by the way, and we are hoping that it will it will be on September. A new production. It’s Ukrainian opera Catarina.
Mary Harris: That’s your name?
Speaker 2: Yes, by the way. Yeah, actually not. It was written by a poet. A poet? Very famous. Shevchenko. It’s our best poet. It’s a beautiful, beautiful opera. Modern, modern opera.
Mary Harris: It sounds like it’s important to you to do Ukrainian work right now.
Speaker 2: Of course. Very important. Very important, because before before it was very few Ukrainian operas on our stage. Very few, maybe one, not two, maybe three, no more, very few. And and we actually had a lot of Russians now, it was a very beautiful Tchaikovsky operas. But now we decided to refuse because not appropriate time for that. Not appropriate. Maybe, maybe when everything will will finish. Maybe we will. But I don’t think so. I don’t know how many years should, should to should pass till we can forget. And I’m not sure that we can forget.
Mary Harris: I read that the first thing you performed in the Opera House was the Ukrainian national anthem. I wonder if there’s a part that speaks to you that you find especially moving and what it is and why.
Speaker 2: Oh, for me, Ukrainian anthem, it’s a very special thing. You know, when I was in the United Kingdom and when war started, we decided every our performance in United Kingdom finish with Ukrainian anthem. We was on the stage and we took our flag and we showed our flag to the audience and we started to sing Ukrainian anthem. And all people were standing up and all people were applause and respect so much and support so much. But from the beginning, I couldn’t sing. I just was crying and crying and crying. I couldn’t hold my myself.
Speaker 2: And now in in Ukraine, it was not that hard for me because I was already seen that anthem in United Kingdom many times. And I was ready. You know, I was really emotional. I was already ready for for these difficult emotions. So I maybe didn’t cry so much, but for me, it’s very special because finally, finally, I could sing our anthem in my native land, in my native opera house, and for my native people. And it was very touched.
Mary Harris: How does it go? What are the lyrics? What does it sound like?
Speaker 2: Lyrics. Lyrics is very appropriate, by the way, to this time. It means as Jennifer Marlowe Kramer. It means Ukraine. Ukraine didn’t die yet. And it didn’t die her glory and didn’t die her freedom. Oh.
Speaker 3: Oh. Oh. Oh, no. Oh.
Speaker 2: I hope maybe someday. I really hope that we will not need any more of this kind of words. I hope that someday it will finish, but feels like until Russia exists and this these they are the leader exists. The ruler exists. Unfortunately, we we have to get ready to protect our land all the time. All the time. Because it feels like you will never refuse from a wish to take all Ukraine.
Mary Harris: I wonder if you see performing right now as a kind of active resistance saying we’re still here and we’re still doing what we do, even though there are air raid sirens.
Speaker 2: Yes, I think we can. I think with that, we will show our strengths, our power. And really, we show that you will not break us. You will not break our spirit. And and to show people to show our people, Ukrainians, that we should be united and we should be strong. And the most the most important is our spirit and and our our faith in our victory.
Mary Harris: Is there anything in particular you want people in the United States to know about your situation? I feel like at the beginning of the war, there was so much attention. Now there’s less. Comparatively. What do you want Americans to know about what life is like in Ukraine right now?
Speaker 2: I can only say that unfortunately nothing stopped and it didn’t get better. It’s getting worse and worse. And I understand, of course, that everybody tired about this news, about the situation, and everybody was shocked from the beginning. But now it’s like, okay, yes, we know about what can we do? Yes, I can understand that it’s actually happened to our people as well, because like from the beginning when we heard sirens, we were running and trying to escape. But now all sirens are okay. Oh.
Mary Harris: You’ve gotten used to it.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yes. We get to use for that. And and, of course, people all over the world and from United States, of course, they got to use for for that horrible use. But please don’t forget. Please don’t forget, because every day every day here people are dying for for I cannot say for nothing, because we are dying for our freedom. We are dying for our land, our native land. So we really need to you not to stop. Help us. Because only with your help, we can resist.
Mary Harris: Thank you so much for this conversation, Katia.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. So thank you so much.
Mary Harris: Katarina Tsymbalyuk is a soloist at the Odessa Opera. And that’s our show. What next is produced by Elina Schwarz, Mary Wilson, Carmel Delshad and Madeline Ducharme. We are getting a ton of support right now from Anna Rubanova. Jared Downing and Anna Phillips were led by Joanne Levine and Alicia montgomery. And I’m Mary Harris. You can go track me down on Twitter, say hello. I’m at Mary’s desk. Thanks for listening. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. The. Hello.
