Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture announced in January that they were preparing, along with the leadership of the National Opera, “decisions within the framework of labor relations” regarding their two leading ballet soloists, after they had performed in Swan Lake by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The ministry explained, as reported last month by the Ukrainian edition of Strana.ua: “From social networks it became known about the participation of the leading soloists of the ballet of the National Opera of Ukraine Natalia Matsak and Serhiy Kryvokon in the performances of Swan Lake with the United European Ballet (Colossart Production). During the official vacation, these artists went abroad. They took part in the performances and distributed the cultural product [of Russia].” The ministry accused the two of violating the theater’s principled position on the withdrawal of works by Russian composers from the repertoire.
After the Ministry of Culture’s announcement, spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova offered that a scandal like what happened with Tchaikovsky’s ballet is possible only in an anecdote, or in Ukraine. She said that such actions can lead Kiev to cancel “themselves completely.” She asked, with dark humor: “And when will the [Mendeleyev] periodic table be banned in Ukraine?”
Matsak has been “prima ballerina” since 2005. The military exemption of her husband Kryvokon has now been cancelled. Their profiles have been wiped clean from the theater’s official website. Despite their being two of the most prominent artists who stayed in Ukraine during the war in order to perform, they now have no work if they return home from their tour, and Kryvokon can have no work outside of Ukraine if he returns home—it being illegal for him to leave the country.
In a related development, in late December, as Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker was being heard throughout the world, his name was removed from the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine, based on the findings of the expert commission of the Institute of National Memory of Ukraine.
