Book Review | Solomea: Star of Opera’s Golden Age (Courageous Heart Productions, 2023)

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Ukrainian soprano Solomea Krushelnytska was widely regarded as a leading lyric-dramatic soprano at the turn of the 20th century, a golden age of the operatic art form. She was a celebrated Salome and Elektra at La Scala under the baton of conductor Arturo Toscanini. She also had the distinction of singing Cio Cio San in the revised version of Madama Butterfly, after initial failure at its La Scala première. Among her many famous operatic partners was none other than the great Enrico Caruso.

Given her exceptional career, it’s unfortunate that she is largely forgotten today—even among the opera cognoscente. But that is changing, thanks to a new biography written by Toronto lawyer Andriy Semotiuk, her grandnephew.

At 465 pages, a formidable but enjoyable read, the book is a labour of love, serving to celebrate and honour the career and life of the great Ukrainian soprano, and to restore her to her rightful place in the consciousness of the opera-going public.

Born in 1872 in Bielawińce, Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and now Biliavyntsi in western Ukraine, Krushelnytska studied opera in the Lviv Conservatory and later in Milan, Vienna and Paris. In 1904, she sang in the revised version of Madama Butterfly in Brescia, to great acclaim. She was also a celebrated Wagnerian, notable for her Elsa in Lohengrin in Paris. Her career took her to opera houses in Europe, North and South America, even Africa.

Later in her career, Krushelnytska went on concert tours in Canada and the U.S. She moved back to western Ukraine just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Because of the political situation at the time, her later life was impoverished and difficult. This biography gives us a genuine picture of Krushelnytska the singer and the person, told from the perspective of a family member, with intimate details about the singer’s private life previously not made public.

Thanks to the invention of the phonograph at the turn of the century, there are quite a few recorded legacies of Krushelnytska, which we can sample on YouTube and elsewhere. Despite the primitive recording technique, we get a glimpse of the exceptional quality of her instrument. Highly recommended.

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