Mazepa
Mania
The story of the legendary Hetman
reaches into the collective imagination of Western culture
By
Olena Wawryshyn
This March, music performances in three North American cities brought one of the great heroes of Ukrainian history, Hetman Ivan Mazepa, to the fore.
Were three productions focusing on Mazepa in one month simply a coincidence, I wondered? What are the reasons for the recent interest in Mazepa?
The first of the recent
concerts to take place was the Metropolitan Opera production of Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa
(the Russian spelling). The opera, based on Pushkin’s poem about Mazepa,
got music critics buzzing and writing about the charismatic 17th-century
Hetman, and Ukrainian history. Tchaikovsky’s “epic nationalist drama” as Opera
News magazine called it received not only a run in
Then, towards the end of
the month, two other concerts featuring works focusing on Mazepa took place.
“The Centre for Ukrainian
Studies at the
Hlynka has been
researching references to Mazepa found in North American popular culture for
years. He found the libretto for the Balfe cantata in a box of archival
materials someone had sent to him.
When Hlynka showed the
libretto to Henry Engbrecht, a well-known music professor and conductor at the
At the concert, presented
by the centre with the assistance of the St. Andrew’s College and the
university’s faculty of music, the Mazepa cantata, which was written for
female voices, was sung by the
With music reminiscent of
Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, the cantata tells the story of the young and
vibrant Mazepa in words written by librettist Jessica Rankin. The finale is an
anthem. Its words: “Long live Mazepa,
the ruler of our choice, we bid you join with heart and hand in one glad shout
rejoice. Friend or foe has never known a heart so bold and free, we choose thee
brave Mazepa, our lord and king to be.”
In the final line, “His
charmed life was spared to be our nation’s guiding light, long live Mazepa!”
Parallels can be made between Mazepa and the role of Victor Yushchenko during
the Orange Revolution says Hlynka.
Ivan Mazepa was born on
Back in
According to legend,
Mazepa allegedly had an affair with the wife of a count who had him stripped
and tied naked to the back of a wild horse, which was released into the
steppes. The horse, with Mazepa still on his back, was chased by wolves and
hounded by vultures. Finally, as the romantic story has it, Mazepa was found by
a group of Zaprozhian Kozaks, who nursed him back to life. He joined their
ranks and ultimately became their leader and the Hetman of Ukraine.
Another legend also
focuses on Mazepa’s amorous conquests. It is said that the elderly Mazepa
fell in love with his goddaughter, Maria, and made plans to marry her against
the wishes of her father, his friend, Kochubei. It is on this story that the
Russian poet, Pushkin, based his literary work.
Tchaikovsky, in turn, based his opera’s libretto on Pushkin’s poem.
History books maintain,
however, that in 1663, Mazepa returned from
During Mazepa’s reign,
A supporter of a
pan-Ukrainian state, Mazepa aimed to unite all Ukrainian terrtories in a
unitary state. Though at first he supported
Seen as a symbol of
Ukrainian independence, Mazepa was vilified by both Russian and Soviet
propagandists and historians.
It is clear why Mazepa
has become a Ukrainian hero. But, he also captured the imaginations of
many European Romantic artists. Among them are composer Franz Liszt, French
writers Voltaire and Victor Hugo, painter Eugene Delacroix and poet Lord Byron.
“People are always
searching for heroes who have survived superhuman tests. Byron saw this in
Mazepa,” says Ukrainian-British opera singer Pavlo Hunka explaining what the
Ukrainian historical figure’s appeal was to the Romantics.
Hunka too admits to
having a fascination with Mazepa. He asserts that Mazepa is a character that
artists are inspired by because his legendary story represents for people a
connection with the emotions. “There is too little emotion in the world
today…People love free spirits, although most dare not to be so,” says Hunka.
Under Hunka’s artistic
direction, The Bulava Chorus in
Artists are attracted to
the “idea [in Mazepa’s story] that you can rise from nothing to everything,”
adds
In
Denis Hlynka says that
the recent flurry of interest in Mazepa in
He also identifies three
other factors. The current archeological excavations in Baturyn, in
Thirdly, in
The interest in Mazepa in
In fact, in the 1950s
movie High Noon with Gary Cooper, there is one scene where a poster
advertising a Mazepa theatrical production can be seen. “As a kid who
liked cowboy movies, I was intrigued,” says Hlynka.
Hlynka’s early curiosity
about why the character he knew from Ukrainian history was in an American
cowboy movie developed into a continuing exploration into Mazepa.
The material on the
subject is plentiful. References to and knowledge of Mazepa in
Mazepa mania, it seems,
goes back far into history, both in