On May 10, the contemporary opera laboratory Opera Aperta will present its new opera Mōdraniht. Songs of Winter War by composers Illya Razumeyko and Roman Hryhoriv, organizers have announced.
The authors describe the new work as a “rhizomatic theatrical essay in the genre of opera practica — a manual on how to create opera during wartime, which, as it unfolds, transforms into a requiem for destroyed bodies and landscapes; a journey across times, wars, and geographies.”
Mōdraniht in Northern mythology refers to the longest night — the “Night of the Mothers,” from December 21 to 22. In mountain villages, residents perform a ritual dance on this night, driving evil spirits away from their homes in order to welcome the reborn Sun.
The premiere of Mōdraniht. Songs of Winter War will take place in Kyiv at the International Center of Culture and Arts as part of the first international theater and performing arts festival KЇ Fest, scheduled for May 7–10. The production will then be presented at O.Festival in Rotterdam, and at Wiener Festwochen — an international festival of contemporary theater, opera, performance, and interdisciplinary art in Vienna.
“An invitation to O.Festival and Wiener Festwochen even before the official premiere is not just a touring schedule for us, but confirmation of institutional trust. We are systematically building partnerships where the team’s reputation is a sufficient argument for cooperation. We begin on May 10 in Kyiv and continue in May–June at key European venues,” said producer Olha Dyatel.
Mōdraniht. Songs of Winter War is the final part of Opera Aperta’s “ecological trilogy,” which began with the archaeological opera Chornobyldorf in 2020 and continued with GAIA-24. Opera del Mondo in 2023–2024. All three works are united by themes of ecological disasters of recent decades caused by totalitarian regimes — the USSR (Chernobyl and the Aral Sea) and Russia (the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam).
Work on Mōdraniht. Songs of Winter War began in 2024 with a series of winter expeditions to the Ukrainian Carpathians, Central Asia (the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan), and Spain (La Vijanera, a winter carnival in the northern mountains).
Previous productions by the founding composers of Opera Aperta — Roman Hryhoriv and Illya Razumeyko — were created in the stage spaces of Ukrainian landscapes (the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Khortytsia Island) and Kyiv architecture (Mystetskyy Arsenal, Khanenko Museum, Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine). They were presented at leading festivals across Europe and the United States, including O.Festival, Musiktheatertage Wien, Theater der Welt, Venice Biennale, Prototype Festival, and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. The productions received a number of awards recognizing them as outstanding works advancing the genre of music theatre and contemporary opera internationally, including the Music Theater Now Award, the Classical:NEXT Innovation Award, and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award.
Mōdraniht. Songs of Winter War was created in partnership between Opera Aperta, proto produkcia, and KЇ Fest. Financial support for the preparatory phase and expeditions was provided by the Goethe-Institut Ukraine Resilience Fund (EUR 12,000) and the “KEY WORK: Artistic Grants” program by RIBBON International in partnership with Jam Factory Art Center (EUR 6,400).