excerpt from Penelope rehearsed sharing
“It means a lot to me to share with you the video recording of the premiere of 'Withstanding. Ukraine 2022', which is the sixth movement of a new opera I had a great privilege to be involved in creating, called 'Penelope: Seven Ways To Wait', composed by Kristina Arakelyan Composer on the libretto by Helen Eastman. It was premiered at the Arcola Theatre in London on the 2nd of September 2022.
This movement is based on the true story of a Ukrainian girl whose father - a warrior of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - was killed on the first day (24.2.2022) of the full-scale invasion of russia into Ukraine. She kept texting him every day and not getting a response (the thread of messages was made public by Masha Efrosinina in Spring 2022). But she refused to stop waiting for him to answer and vowed to never stop writing to him. I have translated every single text message into English and sent it to the librettist and this is how the movement was born. Therefore, the libretto for this movement is based on the original text messages and some phrases are full quotes.
I hope this girl (her name was never revealed) will hear about this piece and know that her story and her father are not forgotten and are now an eternal part of the World of Art. 'Withstanding. Ukraine 2022' is dedicated to the girl, her heroic father and other Heroes of Ukraine, who are defending Ukraine and the Free World! Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes!
PS: Ukrainian and English subtitles are available. Just switch them on when watching the Youtube video
PS: Увімкніть субтитри українською для перекладу.
Thank you to the outstanding team who made this performance possible! Mayou Trikerioti Elizabeth Leather , Lucy Bradley the wonderful chorus singers, who are all credit in the description to the video and everyone involved! Thank you to Ben Tomlin Productions for this recording!”
Anna Starushkevych
#StandWithUkraine