Ukrainian composer, singer, baritone (bass-baritone), dramatic artist, playwright, nephew of the writer P. P. Hulak-Artemovsky, author of one of the first operas based on the Ukrainian-language libretto of the opera Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube.
Biography
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Semen Hulak-Artemovsky's fate was decided by his beautiful voice. In 1838, when Hulak-Artemovskyi was studying at the Kyiv bursa, his talent was noticed by Mikhail Glinka, who was looking for a performer for the role of Ruslan in a newly written opera and took him with him to St. Petersburg. Here, Glinka first gave him singing lessons himself, and in 1839 organized several concerts in his favor, and sent him abroad to study with the money raised. After a visit to Paris, Hulak-Artemovsky traveled to Italy, where, after two years of study, he made his debut at the Florentine Opera (1841).
A memorial plaque on the house at 27 Naberezhno-Khreshchatytska Street, where Semen Hulak-Artemovsky lived in 1824-1830 (bronze, bas-relief; sculptor H. Kalchenko, architect A. Ihnashchenko)
In 1842, Hulak-Artemovsky returned to St. Petersburg, where he was a soloist at the Russian Imperial Opera in St. Petersburg for 22 years, until 1864, and at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 1864-1865. Gulak-Artemovsky became widely known as a composer with his opera Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube, dated 1862, which became a Ukrainian musical classic. The opera premiered on April 14, 1863, at the Mariinsky Theater. Hulak-Artemovsky was not only its first director, but also the performer of the role of Karas. A year later, on October 6, 1864, the performance took place at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.
Tsarist censorship after the Ems Circular banned the opera from being performed on stage for 20 years. On June 11, 1884, the opera was again staged by Mark Kropyvnytskyi in the company of Mykhailo Starytskyi with the participation of Maria Zankovetska and Maria Sadovska-Barilotti.
Ukrainian songs occupy a special place in Hulak-Artemovsky's creative heritage, including "A Sycamore Tree Stands Over the Water" (dedicated to Taras Shevchenko, with whom the author had been friends since 1838), "I Don't Want to Sleep," "Oh, on the Mountain and the Reapers Reap," a rhapsody from a collection of seven songs entitled "Ukrainian Wedding." Hulak-Artemovsky visited Ukraine in 1843 to select singers and in 1850 when he toured with an Italian opera company.
He was fond of folk medicine and statistics, and compiled the Statistical and Geographical Tables of the Cities of the Russian Empire (1854).
He died on April 17, 1873 in Moscow, and was buried at the Vahankiv Cemetery.
Commemoration.
NBU commemorative coin dedicated to Hulak-Artemovskyi
On February 15, 2013, the National Bank of Ukraine issued a silver commemorative coin dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Semen Hulak-Artemovsky's birth.
In February 2013, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of S. Hulak-Artemovsky, the Horodyshche PPSO No. 1 was named after him.
In the town of Horodyshche, Cherkasy region, there is a museum of S.S. Hulak-Artemovsky. A street, the Palace of Culture and a children's art school are named after him.
