Posted on May 13, 2022
Why these Kansas City musicians are inspired by a Ukrainian poet born in the 1880s
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A group of Kansas City musicians is getting together to honor a woman who lived through the most turbulent years of the 20th century and is considered "one of the greatest women poets of all time.”
Kansas City soprano Victoria Botero has spent a lot of time recently thinking about a poet who was born in Odessa, Ukraine, in 1889.
Botero says Anna Akhmatova's poems serve as a testament to survival.
“We should pay attention," Botero says. "When a poet can cross the century, can cross continents, can cross languages. There's something there.”
Akhmatova rocketed to early fame as a glamorous young poet. Then came the First World War, the Bolshevik Revolution, political purges and the devastating Second World War.
Kansas City soprano Victoria Botero has spent a lot of time recently thinking about a poet who was born in Odessa, Ukraine, in 1889.
Botero says Anna Akhmatova's poems serve as a testament to survival.
“We should pay attention," Botero says. "When a poet can cross the century, can cross continents, can cross languages. There's something there.”
Akhmatova rocketed to early fame as a glamorous young poet. Then came the First World War, the Bolshevik Revolution, political purges and the devastating Second World War.
Why these Kansas City musicians are inspired by a Ukrainian poet born in the 1880s
Posted from kcur.org
Kansas City
Music
Poetry
Ukraine
WWI
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."“Anna Akhmatova is one of the greatest poetic voices of the 20th Century and also one of the greatest women poets of all time,” says Vitaly Chernetsky a professor in the department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Kansas who is a scholar of literature and cinema. He says although she was born into a Ukrainian family, Akhmatova was a poet who wrote in Russian and identified with Russian culture.
This 1914 portrait by Soviet avant-garde artist Nathan Altman shows Anna Akhmatova as a young woman. Akhmatova was born Anna Andreevna Gorenko in June 1889 in Odessa, Ukraine.
Akhmatova had a difficult life.
"Her son was thrown into the gulag for many years. Her first husband was shot. Her other husband also was later arrested and shot. She was really treated terribly by this Soviet regime," he says. "But she became a voice of dignity and survival.”
Chernetsky says Akhmatova’s voice was bold and uncompromising.
“She is a woman who is not afraid to speak," he says. "She is a poet who speaks confidently in her own right and makes no apologies for that.”
Over the decades, several of Akhmatova’s poems have been set to music.
Her "Song About Songs" was put to music by American musician Iris DeMent. English composer John Tavener and Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev also set Akhmatova’s poems to music."...
..."“Anna Akhmatova is one of the greatest poetic voices of the 20th Century and also one of the greatest women poets of all time,” says Vitaly Chernetsky a professor in the department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Kansas who is a scholar of literature and cinema. He says although she was born into a Ukrainian family, Akhmatova was a poet who wrote in Russian and identified with Russian culture.
This 1914 portrait by Soviet avant-garde artist Nathan Altman shows Anna Akhmatova as a young woman. Akhmatova was born Anna Andreevna Gorenko in June 1889 in Odessa, Ukraine.
Akhmatova had a difficult life.
"Her son was thrown into the gulag for many years. Her first husband was shot. Her other husband also was later arrested and shot. She was really treated terribly by this Soviet regime," he says. "But she became a voice of dignity and survival.”
Chernetsky says Akhmatova’s voice was bold and uncompromising.
“She is a woman who is not afraid to speak," he says. "She is a poet who speaks confidently in her own right and makes no apologies for that.”
Over the decades, several of Akhmatova’s poems have been set to music.
Her "Song About Songs" was put to music by American musician Iris DeMent. English composer John Tavener and Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev also set Akhmatova’s poems to music."...
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