Opera in Kyiv, Ukraine during the war

First time I went to Opera since the full-scale russian attack. Actually, even in summer I wanted to attend, but there were no free tickets.

This time I went with French volunteer, who had some free time, in order to show him part of cultural life in Kyiv.

It was Italian opera "La serva padrona" by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.

I've been to Kyiv Opera probably more than 100 times, but I didn't attend before this joint Ukrainian-Italian art project, which was organized in collaboration with Embassy of Italy in Ukraine and Italian Institute of Culture in Ukraine.

Opera is really one of my favorite places in Kyiv. In general I liked "tregedy" Operas, by Verdi, Puccini, but this comedy was also good. One more reason I like Italian opera is that I can read subtitles in Ukrainian and this way a bit improve my Italian. Only a bit, as sometimes it's hard to hear the exact words in Opera.

Let me try to describe a bit the atmosphere. Only parter (first floor) was open. There were not so many people as before. Usually parter is expensive, but now the ticket which I've got costed only 200 hryvnias ($5). Yes, I know that prices for cultural events in Kyiv always surprised Europeans and Americans.

This was short Opera only for 1 hour, but even this was enough to have the impression and we'll probably go to Opera again. Because of the war and curfew, the Opera started at 17 (not at 19 as before) so we had enough time to walk in the center of Kyiv and have a dinner in pizzeria near Maidan.