Monoperformance. IRA

Performer:

• Olha Kozhushok, as Ira Malaniuk
• Olha Annenko, director
• Nadiia Kukuruza, concept creator

A deep, velvety, warm voice, gently moving between mezzo-soprano and contralto — this was the voice of Ira Malaniuk. It was heard on the opera stages of Vienna and Zurich, Munich and Lviv throughout the second half of the 20th century.

Her voice also resounded at the legendary Bayreuth Festival. The musical world knows Ira Malaniuk as a contralto, but what do we know about her story?

Her childhood in Stanislaviv, Poland, during the Second World War; the journey on foot back to her hometown; the Soviet occupation; and, eventually, a brilliant career at the leading opera houses of Europe — behind all this lies the story of a woman who proudly told Western society: “I am a Ukrainian from Galicia.”

Her life and artistic confession have been brought to the stage in a play by contemporary Ukrainian playwright, theatre director and screenwriter Olha Annenko.

The role of Ira Malaniuk will be performed by Olha Kozhushok, a spoken-word artist at the Ivano-Frankivsk Philharmonic named after Ira Malaniuk.